Liston v. Reynolds

223 P. 507, 69 Mont. 480, 1923 Mont. LEXIS 252
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 2, 1923
DocketNo. 5,346
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 223 P. 507 (Liston v. Reynolds) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Liston v. Reynolds, 223 P. 507, 69 Mont. 480, 1923 Mont. LEXIS 252 (Mo. 1923).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE STARK

delivered the opinion of the court.

This action was brought by plaintiff to recover damages from the defendant for the death of his minor son, Burnell Liston. The death resulted from an automobile accident which occurred on the county fair grounds at Missoula on July 4, 1921, when certain automobile races were being conducted on a half-mile elliptical track the curves of which were on the east and west ends. The last race of the day, designated as a “free-for-all,” was for twenty-five miles, and there were about a dozen cars entered, among them being two belonging to the defendant, one of which was driven by a man [488]*488named Naegele, and the other by defendant himself. A third ear in the race was a green-colored Ford driven by one Zeising.

Burnell Liston rode with the defendant in the race. The plaintiff contends that defendant’s car completed the twenty-five mile run ahead of all other ears, but that after finishing and winning the race defendant continued to drive his car at a negligently dangerous rate of speed around the track, and in doing so negligently ran into the Zeising car, which caused defendant’s car to veer from its course, run through the outside fence surrounding the track, and kill the decedent.

The defendant’s answer denied all allegations of negligence contained in the complaint, and set up affirmatively that decedent’s death was due to his own fault and negligence, and arose from injuries, the risk of which he had assumed.

The trial of the cause resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $5,500. Defendant made a motion for a new trial, which was denied. The appeal is from the judgment.

The circumstances of this ease are unusual. No similar one has come to our attention. • It was tried and submitted to the jury upon the theory advanced by plaintiff that so long as the race was in progress the decedent assumed all the ordinary risks of injury incident thereto, but that after the race was completed and won by the defendant the ordinary relation of host and invitee arose between him and the decedent, and the former became obligated to exercise reasonable care in the operation of his car, and not to unreasonably expose the decedent to danger and injury by increasing the hazard of his situation.

The defendant’s position is that at the time of the accident Liston was at most a bare trespasser or licensee upon the defendant’s car; that he had voluntarily assumed all the risk incident to the position which he occupied; that defendant’s only duty was to refrain from doing him a willful injury, and that this relation continued to exist after the race had been won by defendant and down to the time of the accident, for [489]*489which reason the plaintiff could recover only upon pleading and proving such a willful injury.

1. The first contention made by defendant on this appeal is that the complaint does not state a cause of action for the reason that it fails to allege willful injury.

We think the complaint sufficiently shows that at the time of the accident the decedent occupied the position of an invitee. It says expressly in paragraph 4: That the defendant “requested the said Burnell Liston to ride with and accompany him in the said race in competition with other racers; * * * that said invitation was accepted by said Burnell Liston. # # * ” And in paragraph 5: “That said deceased got into said racing automobile, occupied the same and ran the course and race at the special instance and request of the defendant.”

In case of an invitee the duty owed is to use reasonable care for the guest’s safety. (Glover v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 54 Mont. 446, 171 Pac. 278; Montague v. Hanson, 38 Mont. 376, 99 Pac. 1063.) We think the rule applies generally to guests riding with the owner or operator of an automobile. As stated by the court in Perkins v. Galloway, 194 Ala. 265, L. R. A. 1916E, 1190, 69 South. 875: “The express or implied duty of the car owner and driver to the occupant of the car is to exercise reasonable care in its operation not to unreasonably expose to danger and injury the occupant by increasing the hazard of that method of travel. He must exercise the care and diligence which a man of reasonable prudence, engaged in like business, would exercise for his own protection and the protection of his family and property — a care which must be reasonably commensurate with the nature and hazards attending this particular mode of travel.”

In an extended note upon this subject contained in 20 A. L. R., at page 1014, where numerous eases are collected, the writer says: “The rule is established by the weight of authority that the owner or operator of an automobile owes the duty to an invited guest to exercise reasonable care in its opera[490]*490tion, and not unreasonably to expose him to danger and injury by increasing the hazards of travel.”

What is meant by reasonable or ordinary care must be determined from the facts presented in each case. “But this term is relative; and ordinary and reasonable care— which is, after all, the most that the law requires — means, when used in this connection, that degree of care which prudent men, skilled in the • particular business, would be likely to exercise under the circumstances. The care must be proportionate to the danger. What is ordinary care in a ease of extraordinary danger would be extraordinary care in a case of ordinary danger, and what would be ordinary care in a case of little danger would be much below this in case of great danger. (Thomp. Neg. 152, and cases cited.)” (Diamond v. Northern Pac. R. Co., 6 Mont. 580, 13 Pac. 367.)

In Railway Co. v. Ives, 144 U. S. 408, 36 L. Ed. 485, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 679 [see, also, Rose’s U. S. Notes], quoted with approval in Cameron v. Kenyon-Connell Com. Co., 22 Mont. 312, 74 Am. St. Rep. 602, 44 L. R. A. 508, 56 Pac. 358, the court said: “There is no fixed standard in the law by which a court is enabled to arbitrarily say in every case what conduct shall be considered reasonable and prudent, and what shall constitute ordinary, care, under any and all circumstances. The terms ‘ordinary care,’ ‘reasonable prudence,’ and such like terms, as applied to the conduct and affairs of men, have a relative significance, and cannot be arbitrarily defined. What may be deemed ordinary care in one case, may, under different surroundings and circumstances, be gross negligence. The policy of the law has relegated the determination of such questions to the jury, under proper instructions from the court. It is their province to note the special circumstances and surroundings of each particular case, and then say whether the conduct of the parties in that case was such as would be expected of reasonable, prudent men, under a similar state of affairs.”

[491]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

McIntosh v. Linder-Kind Lumber Co.
393 P.2d 782 (Montana Supreme Court, 1964)
Hannigan v. Northern Pacific Railway Company
384 P.2d 493 (Montana Supreme Court, 1963)
Philpott v. Mitchell
219 Cal. App. 2d 244 (California Court of Appeal, 1963)
Carter v. Miller
372 P.2d 421 (Montana Supreme Court, 1962)
Williamson v. McKenna
354 P.2d 56 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1960)
Weis v. Davis
82 P.2d 487 (California Court of Appeal, 1938)
McCulloch v. Horton
56 P.2d 1344 (Montana Supreme Court, 1936)
Nangle v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.
32 P.2d 11 (Montana Supreme Court, 1934)
Chapman v. Henderson
67 S.W.2d 570 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1934)
McNair v. Berger
15 P.2d 834 (Montana Supreme Court, 1932)
Ulmen v. Schwieger
12 P.2d 856 (Montana Supreme Court, 1932)
Brown v. Columbia Amusement Co.
6 P.2d 874 (Montana Supreme Court, 1931)
Coliseum Motor Co. v. Hester
3 P.2d 105 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1931)
Little Horn State Bank v. Gross
300 P. 277 (Montana Supreme Court, 1931)
Staff v. Montana Petroleum Co.
291 P. 1042 (Montana Supreme Court, 1930)
Burns v. Eminger
276 P. 437 (Montana Supreme Court, 1929)
Hornbeck v. Richards
257 P. 1025 (Montana Supreme Court, 1927)
Burden v. Elling State Bank
245 P. 958 (Montana Supreme Court, 1926)
Bull v. Butte Electric Railway Co.
223 P. 514 (Montana Supreme Court, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
223 P. 507, 69 Mont. 480, 1923 Mont. LEXIS 252, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liston-v-reynolds-mont-1923.