LUGGAGE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

LUGGAGEAuthored

The Law Mind • 814 words

Definition

Articles of personal comfort and convenience that a traveler carries while in transit, including trunks, bags, and any items intended for the traveler's personal use or equipment during a journey. The term is legally synonymous with BAGGAGE, which see for the full doctrinal treatment governing a carrier's liability, limitations on recovery, and the distinction between checked and unchecked items.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The bags and other containers holding a traveler's belongings; the contents of such containers; any specific bag or container used for travel.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Anything cumbrous and heavy to be carried, especially a traveler's trunks and their contents. Webster's 1913 carries a mild pejorative undertone — "lugged" as in dragged with effort — absent from modern usage.

The gap between common and legal meaning is narrow but real: in ordinary speech, "luggage" refers to the containers themselves. In law, the term encompasses any articles intended for the passenger's personal use or equipment during travel, potentially including items carried on the person that would never be placed in a bag. The legal definition centers on purpose and relationship to the journey, not on the physical form of the container.

Common Confusion

LUGGAGE vs. BAGGAGE: The terms are legally synonymous, but the corpus will reflect a sharp transatlantic divide. English sources, statutes, and cases use "luggage" as the standard term. American sources overwhelmingly prefer "baggage." Researchers mining carrier liability cases must run both searches or risk missing relevant authority. Do not treat the two as substantively distinct legal categories — they are not.

Why It Matters in Research

The primary research value of "luggage" is navigational, not doctrinal. The operative law — carrier liability, valuation limits, the distinction between ordinary baggage and goods shipped for commercial purposes — developed almost entirely under the heading of BAGGAGE in American courts and treatises. A researcher reading English railway cases, English statutes, or sources derived from English practice will encounter "luggage" as the governing term for identical legal concepts.

The Anderson's Dictionary entry in the source material above is a misfire — it contains lottery statute text that does not belong under this heading and should be disregarded entirely. This is an example of the indexing and compilation errors that appear in historical legal dictionaries and that Law Mind researchers must watch for.

California Civil Code § 2181, cited in both Black's editions, is a genuine anchoring reference for the statutory definition of what qualifies as luggage/baggage in the carrier liability context. Researchers working in California sources will find that provision a useful starting point for the scope of the carrier's duty.

The cases cited in Black's 2nd edition — Great Northern Ry. Co. v. Shepherd, 8 Exch. 37 (English); Duffy v. Thompson, 4 E.D. Smith (N.Y.) 180 (American); Choctaw, O. & G. R. Co. v. Zwirtz, 18 Okl. 411, 73 Pac. 941 — illustrate the cross-jurisdictional reach of the baggage/luggage doctrine and are worth consulting when tracing how courts defined the scope of personal items a carrier was obligated to transport and protect.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's 1st and 2nd editions are in full agreement with Bouvier: the terms are synonymous, with "luggage" dominant in English usage and "baggage" dominant in American usage. Both Black's editions anchor the definition to California Civil Code § 2181, reflecting the influence of civil law codification in that state's approach to carrier obligations.

Bouvier adds a California citation (70 Cal. 169) and cross-references BAGGAGE as the primary entry, signaling where the substantive doctrine lives. That cross-reference remains the correct research instruction today.

Anderson's entry under this heading is garbled — the text reproduced deals with lottery statutes under English and American law and has no apparent connection to luggage. Researchers should treat this as a compilation error and not assign any doctrinal weight to it.

None of the historical dictionaries substantively address the question of what happens when a traveler's personal items exceed ordinary personal use — the line between baggage and commercial freight — though that question was extensively litigated in carrier liability cases accessible through BAGGAGE in the corpus.

Jurisdictional Note

The terminological divide is primarily transatlantic rather than state-by-state: English sources use "luggage," American sources use "baggage." Within the United States, some variation exists in how statutes define the scope of items covered under carrier liability, but the functional legal standard is substantially uniform. California's early codification in Civil Code § 2181 made it an outlier in relying on statutory rather than common law definition.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Carriers — Baggage and Passenger Property; Common Carriers — Duties and Liabilities.

LUGGAGEmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Luggage may consist of any articles intended for the use of a passen- ger while traveling, or for his personal equip- ment. Civil Code Cal. § 2181. This term is synonymous with "baggage," but is more commonly used in England than in America.

LUGGAGEmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

Luggage may consist of any articles intended for the use of a passenger while traveling, or for his personal equipment. Civ. Code Cal. § 2181. This term is synonymous with “bagguge,” but is more commonly used in England than in America. See Great Northern Ry. Co. v. Shepherd, 8 Exch. 37; Duffy v. Thompson, 4 E. D. Smith (N. Y.) 180; Choctaw, ete., R. Co. v. Zwirtz, 18 Okl. 411, 73 Pac. 941.

LUGGAGEmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

11 Will. III (1699), c. 17, prohibited them as public nuisances; and statute of 6 and 7 Will. IV (1836), c. 66, forbade advertising foreign lotteries. Similar statutes exist here; where also, circulars concerning lotteries are not mailable matter.2 The effect of Rev. St. § 3894, prohibiting the mailing of lottery circulars, etc., is to make any matter concerning lotteries unmailable, and to subject the sender to the penalty therein provided. When a city, to induce people to buy its bonds, holds out prizes to be drawn by chance, the mailing of circulars concerning such drawings is a mailing of lottery circulars within that section. A mere license to draw a lottery, not inseparable from the essential functions of a corporation, not acted on, and under which no rights have been vested, may be repealed by a succeeding legislature. Lotteries are a malum prohibitum. They are a species of gambling, and wrong in their influences. They disturb the checks and balances of a well-ordered community. The right to suppress them is governmental, exercisable in discretion. Any one who accepts a lottery charter does so with the implied understanding that the people, through their proper agency, may resume it whenever the public good requires it. All that one can get by such a charter is a suspension of certain governmental rights in his favor, subject to withdrawal at will. He has a license to enjoy the privilege on the terms named for the specified time, unless it be abrogated by the sovereign power. It is a permit, good as against existing laws, but subject to future legislation and constitutional control or with drawal. See DECOY; POLICE, 2. A grant in the constitution of a State of the privilege of establishing a lottery, to a corporation, is not subject to repeal by the legislature.. No other form of gambling operates so extensively in its dealings, or demoralizes so many people. It is this extensive reach, and not merely its speculative purposes, that makes lottery-gambling so dangerous.7 and enlarged to suit statutory changes, since 1825 the Digest has been known as the "Civil Code." Punishment for crimes is prescribed by reference to their names; for the definitions, the common law of England is resorted to. The code presents the leading principles of evidence; for application, recourse is had to treaties. The lex mercatoria, as an independent system of law, is recognized. The English law as to realty has never been received. In other respects, the law of the State may be said to be like the laws of the other States. See LIQUIDATION, Board of. May consist of any articles intended for the use of a passenger while traveling or for his personal equipment.7 "Baggage" and "luggage" mean the same thing. The latter term prevails in England. See further

LUGGAGEn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

That which is lugged; anything cumbrous and heavy to be carried; especially, a traveler's trunks, baggage, etc., or their contents. I am gathering up my luggage, and preparing for my journey. Swift. What do you mean, To dote thus on such luggage! Shak.

luggagenoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

The bags and other containers that hold a traveller's belongings. | The contents of such containers. | A specific bag or container holding a traveller's belongings.

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