Beitz v. Horak

• Decision Date: 22 November 1978
• Docket Number: No. 61012,61012
• Citation: 271 N.W.2d 755
• Parties: Doran J. BEITZ, Appellant, v. Craig L. HORAK, and Larry Arnold Sandberg and Carol Nadine Sandberg d/b/a L & N Feed Co., Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 755

271 N.W.2d 755

Doran J. BEITZ, Appellant, v. Craig L. HORAK, and Larry Arnold Sandberg and Carol Nadine Sandberg d/b/a L & N Feed Co., Appellees.

No. 61012.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Nov. 22, 1978.

Gerald J. Kucera, Cedar Rapids, for appellant.

James W. Crawford and Donna L. Paulsen, Cedar Rapids, for appellees.

Considered en banc.

REYNOLDSON, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff Doran J. Beitz, a passenger injured in a single-vehicle accident involving a truck owned by defendants Larry Arnold Sandberg and Carol Nadine Sandberg (L & N Feed Co.) and driven by defendant Craig L. Horak, appeals from judgment entered on a verdict directed against him. We affirm.

The truck in which plaintiff was riding jackknifed and went into a ditch near Alburnett on March 16, 1973.

Division I of Beitz's petition alleged Horak had prevailed on Beitz to ride with him on a 200-mile round trip to deliver corn for L & N. Defendants were alleged to have been negligent in various ways, including failure to have the tractor and trailer equipped with proper brakes, permitting Horak to drive the unit with improper and faulty brakes, failure to warn Beitz and failure to inspect and repair the brakes.

Division II alleged defendants were reckless in various particulars including "not having and keeping said semi-tractor semi-trailer (sic) under proper control when he well knew that said vehicle could not be safely operated with the appliances and equipment thereon in the then condition thereof."

Defendants' answer denied these allegations and affirmatively asserted Beitz was a guest in the truck within the meaning of the guest statute, § 321.494, The Code 1973. ¹ The case proceeded to trial.

When Beitz rested, defendants moved for directed verdict on the grounds that the evidence disclosed plaintiff was a guest and Horak was not reckless. Resisting, Beitz argued there were factual questions for the jury as to whether he was a guest and whether Horak was reckless. Beitz also argued the guest statute was inapplicable because it denies equal protection and is void for vagueness.

Orally sustaining the motion, trial court held plaintiff (1) was a guest as a matter of law, (2) the guest statute was constitutional, and (3) Horak, as a matter of law, was not reckless.

The issues presented for appellate review are formulated from these three findings. We treat them in the divisions which follow.

I. Our scope of review is well-settled. A trial court ruling on a motion for directed verdict must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion is urged. Curran Hydraulic Corp. v. National-Ben Franklin Ins. Co., 261 N.W.2d 822, 823 (Iowa 1978). The movant is considered to have admitted the truth of all evidence offered by his adversary and every favorable inference which may be fairly and reasonably deduced from it. B & B Asphalt Co. v. T. S. McShane Co., 242 N.W.2d 279, 284 (Iowa 1976). If there has been adduced substantial evidence in support of each element of plaintiff's cause of action, the motion should be overruled. Oak Leaf Country Club, Inc. v. Wilson, 257 N.W.2d 739, 744-45 (Iowa 1977).

We review trial court's ruling with these principles before us. The summary of evidence set out below is drafted to reflect those facts and inferences which favor Beitz.

Horak drove trucks for L & N on a regular basis. In 1972 he took a correspondence driving course which culminated in two weeks of actual driving instruction.

Beitz and Horak were lifelong acquaintances and residents of Alburnett. Beitz had ridden with Horak in L & N trucks on at least three occasions prior to the accident. L & N welcomed such passengers, apparently because they kept company with the drivers. Beitz knew this. Horak told Beitz he wanted Beitz along to visit with him.

On the evening of March 16, 1973, Beitz had just arrived home from work when Horak called. Horak asked Beitz to accompany him on a corn-hauling trip to Davenport. Beitz at first declined because he was tired, but agreed to go when Horak persisted and asked, "What's the matter, you chicken?"

The trip to Davenport and most of the return were uneventful. Beitz did not assist in unloading the trailer or provide any assistance other than his presence and social intercourse. At dinner separate checks were written, but Beitz paid both without explanation, offer, or request.

On the return leg of the journey it was raining lightly. Just outside Alburnett, Horak saw a friend standing in the ditch next to his car. Intending to help, Horak immediately and forcibly applied his brakes. As the trailer started to jackknife Horak said, "The darn trailer is jackknifed; the brakes are locked." Horak floored the accelerator and pulled the brake lever in an unsuccessful attempt to straighten the trailer. The cab and trailer slid into the ditch. Skid marks were left on the roadway. Although injured, Beitz helped Horak get out of the cab, then flagged down oncoming traffic.

Horak knew the trailer's brakes had not been functioning properly and had so informed L & N. Another L & N employee had been instructed to loosen the brakes, but no one had inspected this equipment before the Davenport trip. Another driver for L & N used the unit after the accident. The brakes also locked on him, almost causing another accident. From the evidence presented a jury could have found the accident was caused by the sudden application of defective brakes.

Many of our rules relating to Iowa's guest statute are summarized in Wharff v. McBride, 183 N.W.2d 700, 703-06 (Iowa 1971). Generally, a vehicle occupant other than the principal driver is not a guest if she or he is providing the owner or operator some definite and tangible benefit. Id. at 703.

Beitz argues his presence in L & N's truck on this occasion was to keep Horak alert and awake and to provide assistance in event of emergency, which in fact became necessary during the course of this trip. This, he asserts, constituted the required definite and tangible benefit for Horak and L & N.

Beitz's contentions must be trimmed to fit the facts. There is no evidence Beitz was asked to go along to be of assistance in emergencies. The sole purpose any witness assigned for Beitz's presence in the truck was his conversation and company.

Such conversation and company, however, fall within the rule reiterated in Wharff : "Such benefits to the operator or owner as are incidental to hospitality, social relations, companionship or the like are not definite and tangible benefits." 183 N.W.2d at 704. See Nielsen v. Kohlstedt, 254 Iowa 470, 474, 117 N.W.2d 900, 903 (1962).

We hold Wharff controls this issue. Trial court was right in ruling Beitz was a guest as a matter of law.

II. Having reached this conclusion, we are required to examine Beitz's attack on the constitutionality of Iowa's guest statute. He asserts § 321.494 is unconstitutionally vague and denies equal protection in violation of the fifth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution.

A. We first examine the issue of equal protection under the United States Constitution.

In Keasling v. Thompson, 217 N.W.2d 687 (Iowa 1974), and Strauser v. Bryant, 217 N.W.2d 706 (Iowa 1974), this court in five-to-four decisions upheld Iowa's guest statute against equal protection attacks. The majority relied in part on a 1929 opinion of the United States Supreme Court which held Connecticut's guest statute did not violate the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. Silver v. Silver, 280 U.S. 117, 50 S.Ct. 57, 74 L.Ed. 221.

Although the Supreme Court's decision was posited on narrow grounds (the only classification validated was guests in automobiles vis-a-vis guests in other vehicles) the court since has not elected to analyze the question under modern equal protection concepts. Instead it has dismissed, without opinion and for want of a substantial federal question, appeals from three state court judgments upholding guest statutes against federal equal protection attacks. Hill v. Garner, 434 U.S. 989, 98 S.Ct. 623, 54 L.Ed.2d 486, dismissing appeal from 277 Or. 641, 561 P.2d 1016 (1977); White v. Hughes, 423 U.S. 805, 96 S.Ct. 15, 46 L.Ed.2d 26, dismissing appeal from 257 Ark. 627, 519 S.W.2d 70 (1975); Cannon v. Oviatt, 419 U.S. 810, 95 S.Ct. 24, 42 L.Ed.2d 37, dismissing appeal from 520 P.2d 883 (Utah 1974).

Our review of this issue is foreclosed by Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U.S. 332, 343-45, 95 S.Ct. 2281, 2289, 45 L.Ed.2d 223, 235-36 (1975), which holds that the court's summary dismissal of a 28 U.S.C. § 1257 appeal (from a state court decision presenting a federal constitutional issue) for want of a substantial federal question is a decision on the merits and binding on state and federal courts. See Durham v. United States, 401 U.S. 481, 483 n., 91 S.Ct. 858, 860, 28 L.Ed.2d 200, 203 (1971); Rodriquez v. United States, 395 U.S. 327, 329-30, 89 S.Ct. 1715, 1717, 23 L.Ed.2d 340, 344 (1969), for references to the obligatory nature of the court's jurisdiction in these cases.

The potential of the Hicks rule for short-circuiting meaningful analysis has been criticized. See Sidle v. Majors, 429 U.S. 945, 945, 97 S.Ct. 366, 366, 50 L.Ed.2d 316, 316 (Brennan, J., dissenting), denying cert. to 536 F.2d 1156 (7th Cir. 1976); Colorado Springs Amusements v. Rizzo, 428 U.S. 913, 913, 96 S.Ct. 3228, 3228, 49 L.Ed.2d 1222, 1222 (1976) (Brennan, J., dissenting), denying cert. to 524 F.2d 571 (3d Cir. 1975). However, it continues to vest these summary dismissals, reached "without any briefing or oral argument and with only momentary and offhanded Conference discussion," with the precedential force of a Supreme Court opinion written after plenary consideration. Sidle v. Majors, 429 U.S. at 948, 97 S.Ct. at 368, 50 L.Ed.2d at 317. See Neu v. Grant, 548 F.2d 281, 284 (10th Cir. 1977).

Thus the Supreme Court's interpretation and application of the equal protection clause in the fourteenth amendment is...