[pct-l] re abandoned boots

[Brian McLaughlin]

I can't resist a question like this one, even though there
could never be an answer that would satisfy everyone.

When the original owner weighed the cost of retreiving
his boots against the cost of abandoning them, he decided
the cost of retrieval was higher than the boots were worth.

For me, that says it all. The gentleman who did retrieve them
therefore "paid" this price for them, and in the estimation of
the original owner, he actually overpaid for them. Moreover,
the retriever of the boots paid this price with no altruistic
motive. It was a salvage operation on abandoned, rather
than lost, property.

Therefore, if the original owner wants his boots back, he
needs to compensate the retriever for his services, and
at a rate that comes to more than he thought the boots
were worth, and which satisfies the retriever.

Having already cited the rules of flotsam vs. jetsam, I
am tempted to cite the rules of salvage and call the boots
in question the equivalent of "a boat in tow". By the law
of the sea, a boat in such distress that it requests a tow
to moorage is a boat that has been forfeited to the
owner of the boat who provides the tow. The ocean
is not kind to boats that cannot fend for themselves,
and it is assumed the ocean would claim such a boat
for itself, had it not been towed.

The original owner had already consigned the boots to
oblivion. The person who brought them back has
acquired the greater moral right to them.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Africk" <danstheman at gmail.com>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>; "David Ellzey" <david at xpletive.com>
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 7:46 PM
Subject: [pct-l] re abandoned boots


> That's a tough call. I would call that 'reluctantly abandoned', not lost.
> The hiker knew where the boots were and chose not to retrieve them. 
> However
> because the hiker still wanted his boots, and only left them because he
> didn't think he could safely retrieve them, I think the right thing to do 
> is
> to attempt to return them to the original owner....