Paduchik v. Mikoff

112 N.E.2d 69, 64 Ohio Law. Abs. 150, 1951 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 367
CourtTrumbull County Court of Common Pleas
DecidedNovember 5, 1951
DocketNo. 56940
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 112 N.E.2d 69 (Paduchik v. Mikoff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paduchik v. Mikoff, 112 N.E.2d 69, 64 Ohio Law. Abs. 150, 1951 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 367 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1951).

Opinion

OPINION

By THOMAS, J.

From a Jury verdict against him in the sum of $3,000.00 awarded as damages for personal injuries suffered by the Plaintiff, and judgment thereon, the defendant moves for a new trial.

There was sufficient evidence from which the Jury could find the following facts.

Plaintiff, a boy of nine was crushed against the rear wall of his grandparent’s farmhouse by a backing 1947 pickup truck owned and operated by the defendant.

Defendant lives with plaintiff’s family on a farm three miles east of the Ohio-Pennsylvania line in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. It is approximately twelve miles from plaintiff’s home to the farm of his grandparents which is on Ohio Route No. 304 about three miles east of Hubbard.

Though defendant had not driven an automobile for fifteen to twenty years, he owned the 1947 pick-up truck which struck and injured the plaintiff. Usually the plaintiff’s father drove himself and the defendant in the truck to and from their work at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company plant east of Youngstown.

On the afternoon of November 11, 1948, the plaintiff’s mother drove the truck loaded with cabbages, from her farm to the grandparents’ farm. The defendant and the plaintiff rode in the truck. Plaintiff’s mother testified that she drove the truck at defendant’s request.

The testimony generally established that on arrival at the farm the truck was driven to the back of the farmhouse, that plaintiff’s mother entered the house, and that the defendant, plaintiff, and a man who lived there unloaded the cabbages from the truck to the cellar through a window close to which the truck had been backed and parked.

[153]*153The Jury could have found further from all the evidence that when the cabbages were unloaded about 2:30 P. M. the defendant, in a hurry to get to work where he was due at 2:45 P. M., got into the truck to start it, and in some manner caused the truck to move backwards against the plaintiff. Defendant gave no warning before he moved the truck.

First to be considered is a renewal of defendant’s claim that the service of process made upon him pursuant to §6308-1 GC, is ineffective because the accident happened on private property.

Sec. 6308-1 GC provides:

“Service of process upon non-resident owners or operators of motor vehicles. Any nonresident of this state, being the operator or owner of any motor vehicle, who shall accept the privilege extended by the laws of this state to non-resident operators and owners, of operating a motor vehicle, or of having the same operated, within the State of Ohio, or any resident of this State, being the licensed operator or owner of any motor vehicle under the laws of this state, who shall subsequently become a non-resident or shall conceal his whereabouts, shall, by such acceptance or licensure, as the case may be, and by the operation of such motor vehicle within the state of Ohio, make and constitute the Secretary of State of the State of Ohio his, her or their agent for the service of process in any civil suit or proceeding, instituted in the Courts of the State of Ohio against such operator or owner of such motor vehicle, arising out of, or by reason of, any accident or collision occurring within the State in which such motor vehicle is involved.”

What are the acts of a non-resident owner of a motor vehicle which under §6308-1 GC will appoint the Secretary of State his agent for service of process?

The statute recites the acceptance of the “privilege extended by the laws of this State to non-resident pperators and owners, of operating a motor vehicle, or of having the same operated within the State of Ohio” and “the operation of such motor vehicle within the State of Ohio.”

Without determining whether a state has the police power to regard the operation of motor vehicles on private property as a privilege it is sufficient here to note that our present laws do not so regard the operation of a motor vehicle on private property. On the other hand the operation of a motor vehicle oh the public roads is and for some time has been treated by our laws as a privilege.

Since 1908 (99 v 538-546) it has been necessary annually to register, and to pay a license tax on every motor vehicle “which shall be operated or driven upon the public roads or highways [154]*154of this state.” Such tax, significantly, has been upheld, not as a property tax, but as a privilege or excise tax. Graves v. Janes, 2 Oh Ap 383, Western Express Co. v. Wallace, 144 Oh St 612.

Accordingly the reference in §6308-1 GC to the “privilege ... of operating a motor vehicle or of having the same operated, within the State of Ohio” is deemed to refer to the operation of a motor vehicle upon a public road or highway of this state.

However no formal or express acceptance of this privilege is essential to constitute the appointment of the Secretary of State as agent of the non-resident for substituted service. Instead the use of the highway by the non-resident is equivalent to the appointment of the Secretary of State as agent on whom process may be served. Hess v. Pawloski 274 U. S. 352, 47 S. Ct. 632. 71 L. Ed. 1091.

Plaintiff’s mother testified that she was driving defendant’s truck at his request. This testimony which the Jury was entitled to believe if it chose, constituted sufficient proof that the defendant had the truck operated on the public roads of Ohio.

But even without this testimony the defendant’s presence in the truck, while it was being operated on the public roads, created a rebuttable presumption that the plaintiff’s mother was driving the truck as his agent. Dahnke v. Meggitt, 63 Oh Ap 252. There is neither proof, nor claim that he rode under protest. Since he was eventually to be driven to work the entire trip must be regarded as one from which he was deriving a benefit. To be sure it was a round about way to his work, but his continued presence in the truck, without protest, approved the route taken.

Hence there was more than sufficient evidence from which the Jury could have found that the defendant, a non-resident owner of a motor vehicle, had the motor vehicle operated upon the public roads of Ohio.

Such use of the public roads by the defendant constituted the Secretary of State as his agent on whom process could be served in any civil action described in the latter part of §6308-1 GC.

It remains to decide whether the present civil action which grows out of an accident happening on private property comes within the class of civil actions described in the latter part of §6308-1 GC.

It is evident that the latter part of §6308-1 GC does not expressly restrict the class of civil actions in which substituted service is permitted, to those civil actions which [155]*155grow out of the operation of a motor vehicle upon the public roads or highways of the State.

Quite the contrary the Statute speaks of “any civil suit . . . arising out of, or by reason of, any accident or collision occurring within the State in which such motor vehicle is involved.” (Emphasis added.)

The word “any” means “without limitations.” So long as “such motor vehicle is involved” the place of the accident is not limited.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
112 N.E.2d 69, 64 Ohio Law. Abs. 150, 1951 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paduchik-v-mikoff-ohctcompltrumbu-1951.