/2/ These troubles had been got over
by the well-known words, super se assumpsit, which will be
explained later. Assumpsit did not for a long time become an
independent action of contract, and the allegation was simply the
inducement to an action of tort. The ground of liability was that
the defendant had started upon the undertaking, so that his
negligent omission, which let in the damage, could be connected
with his acts as a part of his dealing with the thing. /3/ We
shall find Lord Holt recognizing this original purport of
assumpsit when we come to Coggs v. Bernard. Of course it was not
confined to cases of bailment.
But there was another way besides this by which the defendant
could be charged with a duty and made liable [184] in case, and
which, although less familiar to lawyers, has a special bearing
on the law of carriers in later times. If damage had been done or
occasioned by the act or omission of the defendant in the pursuit
of some of the more common callings, such as that of a farrier,
it seems that the action could be maintained, without laying an
assumpsit, on the allegation that he was a "common" farrier. /1/
The latter principle was also wholly independent of bailment. It
expressed the general obligation of those exercising a public or
"common" business to practise their art on demand, and show skill
in it.
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