Nightclubs and wardrobe security / responsibility

As you may have read in today's Abendzeitung, the nightclub at Park-Cafe suffered the theft of 50 coats from their wardrobe last Wednesday night.

Apparently the wardrobe was left unattended and guests started to help themselves. When other guests then discovered they couldn't find their own jacket they instead took another -- just so they could keep warm for the journey home. It was complete chaos and out of the 1,000 guests that night at least 50 coats have gone astray, some of them very expensive or containing cellphones and wallets.

But the most interesting part of this, I thought, is the AZ claims that if a disco takes payment for the wardrobe then they are legally responsible for the safe keeping of your coat. They are responsible even if they display "Keine Haftung" signs denying this.

Interesting because many clubs charge 2 or 3 euro for the wardrobe. Yet I've often seen these "Keine Haftung" notices. So... take note... if you suffer a stolen jacket and have paid for the wardrobe you can indeed claim liability from the owners of the establishment. Fortunately, this being "Toytown", thefts don't happen very often.

Yep - same point of law as in England - lots of cloakrooms claim to have no liability, but if that were the case, what exactly are you paying them for? If you pay for a cloakroom to look after your jacket, that's exactly what you expect them to do and they're liable if they fail to do so.

In this case it sounds less like organised theft than simple incompetence (he says attempting to keep Toytown's reputation intact).

This wardrobe. You wardrobe attendant. You no bugger off.

Anyone who leaves their wallet and mobile in their coat pocket, and then hands the coat over to a total stranger who couldn't give a toss, is a twat.

I totally agree with Jimbo that if you pay for a cloakroom to look after your jacket, that's they should do and they should be held accountable if they don't.

in fact, i did a case study on this type of liability in my first semester of Law at business school. If i remember correctly, the laibilities applies when the damage/loss/theft was a result of gross negligence on the part of the company responsible for the safe-keeping. In this case the fact that they left the cloakroom unattended would qualify as gross negligence.

Do i remember this correctly, ye laywers of Toytown, Jimbo et al