Bieszck v. Avis Rent-A-Car System, Inc.

• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: PER CURIAM; MALLETT
• Citation: Bieszck v. Avis Rent-A-Car System, Inc., 583 N.W.2d 691, 459 Mich. 9 (Mich. 1998)
• Decision Date: 15 September 1998
• Docket Number: RENT-A-CAR,Docket No. 109992
• Parties: Ronald BIESZCK and Susan Bieszck, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. AVISSYSTEM, INC., Defendant-Appellant, and Tyrone Glenn Hill, Defendant.

Page 691

583 N.W.2d 691

459 Mich. 9

Ronald BIESZCK and Susan Bieszck, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. AVIS RENT-A-CAR SYSTEM, INC., Defendant-Appellant and Tyrone Glenn Hill, Defendant.

Docket No. 109992.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Sept. 15, 1998.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 28, 1998.

Gary B. Perkins, Rochester Hills, for the plaintiffs-appellees.

Plunkett & Cooney, P.C. by Ernest R. Bazzana, Detroit, and James R. Fletcher, Southfield, for the defendant-appellant.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

This case presents an issue regarding the liability of a car-rental company for harm caused by a person who was driving its car without permission. The car-rental company prevailed in circuit court, but the Court of Appeals reversed, saying that the owner's liability statute is applicable in this factual setting. We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and reinstate the judgment of the circuit court.

I

In early April 1991, a person named Virdell Hill rented a 1991 Pontiac from Avis. The "plain English" rental contract provided that the car was not to be driven by anyone under the age of twenty-five. ¹

Several days later, the car was involved in an automobile accident in Detroit. On that date, it was being driven by twenty-one-year-old Tyrone G. Hill. The relationship between Tyrone Hill and Virdell Hill cannot be determined from this record.

The accident occurred as Tyrone Hill was driving south on Hayes. He ran a red light at the intersection of Seven Mile Road and Hayes Road, and collided with a westbound vehicle driven by Ronald L. Bieszck. Although Mr. Bieszck did not seek immediate medical care, he says that he was seriously injured in the collision.

In January 1994, Mr. Bieszck and his spouse (whose claims are derivative) filed suit against Avis and Tyrone Hill. Mr. Hill was never served, and this litigation has thus focused on the claim against Avis.

The Bieszcks alleged that the rented Pontiac was being driven negligently, and that Avis was responsible because it owned the vehicle. The Bieszcks' claim against Avis was thus premised on the owner's liability statute, which provided:

The owner of a motor vehicle shall be liable for any injury occasioned by the negligent operation of the motor vehicle whether the negligence consists of a violation of the provisions of the statutes of the state or in the failure to observe such ordinary care in the operation of the motor vehicle as the rules of the common law requires [sic]. The owner shall not be liable, however, unless the motor vehicle is being driven with his or her express or implied consent or knowledge. It shall be presumed that the motor vehicle is being driven with the knowledge and consent of the owner if it is driven at the time of the injury by his or her father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, or other immediate member of the family. [M.C.L. § 257.401(1); M.S.A. § 9.2101(1), as amended by 1988 P.A. 125. ² ]

The case was tried in late 1995. Neither Virdell Hill nor Tyrone Hill testified.

The circuit court submitted to the jury, as a question of fact, the issue whether Tyrone Hill was driving with the express or implied consent or knowledge of Avis. The verdict sheet presented that issue as the first of several questions. Thus, when the jurors answered "No," they stopped, and did not go on to decide issues of negligence, comparative negligence, proximate cause, serious impairment of body function, damages, or loss of consortium. In accordance with the jury's verdict, the circuit court entered judgment for Avis.

The Bieszcks moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for new trial, but the circuit court denied the motion. The court also denied their motion for reconsideration. ³

After the Bieszcks appealed to the Court of Appeals, the circuit court issued a supplemental opinion and order denying their request to certify to the Court of Appeals that it would be willing to grant a new trial on the basis of an unpublished decision of the Court of Appeals, ⁴ in which the Court declined to enforce an age restriction in a rental agreement.

The Court of Appeals reversed. 224 Mich.App. 295, 568 N.W.2d 401 (1997). Characterizing as "persuasive" its earlier decision in Delaney v. Burnett, 63 Mich.App. 639, 234 N.W.2d 741 (1975), the Court of Appeals said that the age limitation in Avis' contract "was insufficient, as a matter of law, to avoid the presumption that the vehicle was being driven with Avis' consent." 224 Mich.App. at 301-302, 568 N.W.2d 401.

Avis has applied to this Court for leave to appeal.

II

The modern understanding of the owner's liability statute stems from this Court's decisions in Roberts v. Posey, 386 Mich. 656, 194 N.W.2d 310 (1972), and Cowan v. Strecker, 394 Mich. 110, 229 N.W.2d 302 (1975).

In Roberts, a car was loaned for a short time and for a specific purpose. However, the borrower kept the vehicle much longer, ranged far beyond the limited errand for which he had been given the car, and, in the early morning hours of the following day, collided with another motorist. The injured motorist sued the owner of the loaned vehicle, but the circuit court and the Court of Appeals ⁵ denied relief on the ground that the borrower had driven well beyond the scope of the permissive use. In reaching this conclusion, the circuit court relied on Merritt v. Huron Motor Sales, Inc., 282 Mich. 322, 276 N.W. 464 (1937).

In its unanimous Roberts opinion, this Court reversed the judgments of the circuit court and the Court of Appeals, and overruled Merritt. This Court emphasized that the question under the statute was whether the owner had given permission for the car to be driven:

The Merritt case is poorly reasoned. It engrafts upon the statutory test of owner's liability, an element of conditional consent which the legislature has not provided.

It may be assumed that no auto owner gives consent to another to have an accident with his car. In that sense, every vehicle driven by someone other than the owner, which becomes involved in a collision is being driven outside the scope of the owner's consent.

The statute absolves the owner from liability only when the vehicle is being driven without his express or implied consent or knowledge. The consent or knowledge, therefore, refers to the fact of the driving. It does not refer to the purpose of the driving, the place of the driving, or to the time of the driving.

The purpose of the statute is to place the risk of damage or injury upon the person who has the ultimate control of the vehicle.

The owner who gives his keys to another, and permits that person to move several thousand pounds of steel upon the public highway, has begun the chain of events which leads to damage or injury.

The statute makes the owner liable, not because he caused the injury, but because he permitted the driver to be in a position to cause the injury.

By common-law standards, this may be a remote, rather than a proximate cause. But it is competent for the legislature to declare a remote factor to be a proximate cause. [386 Mich. at 661-662, 194 N.W.2d 310 (emphasis in original).]

In Cowan, this Court faced a situation in which the owner loaned her car to an acquaintance, with a specific instruction that she not let anyone else drive the vehicle. The borrower disobeyed the command and permitted her son to drive the car. A collision occurred while he was driving. The circuit court granted judgment for the owner.

The Court of Appeals reversed the circuit court judgment in Cowan. It acknowledged that the judgment was consistent with an earlier decision, Ensign v. Crater, 41 Mich.App. 477, 200 N.W.2d 341 (1972), but the Court reversed in the belief that Ensign could not be reconciled with Roberts. 52 Mich.App. 638, 218 N.W.2d 50 (1974).

In Ensign, parents loaned a car to their daughter, for a specific period and purpose. She let her boyfriend drive on a separate venture, however, and he was involved in an accident. The Court of Appeals found the parents not liable on the basis of "positive, unequivocal, strong and credible evidence" that they had no knowledge that the boyfriend would drive, and had not given their consent. Id. at 482, 200 N.W.2d 341.

This Court affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeals in Cowan, embracing a portion of the analysis given by the Court of Appeals in that case:

The specifics of any limitations imposed by the owner are irrelevant to the statute's effectuation of its purpose. Whatever the limitations, once the owner has turned his keys over to another, he is powerless to enforce those limitations. Several thousand pounds of steel are being moved upon the public highway because the owner consented thereto. Even if the individual who borrowed the car is deviated from his instructions, the car is being operated on the highway because the owner consented thereto. If the car is involved in an accident, the owner is liable because of that consent. [52 Mich.App. at 641-642, 218 N.W.2d 50, quoted at 394 Mich. at 115, 229 N.W.2d 302.]

This Court said that the circuit court's construction of the statute in Cowan "resembles the erroneous construction in Ensign." Id.

After this Court decided Roberts and Cowan, the Court of Appeals issued Delaney. The Court stated the basic conflict:

The heart of the controversy involves the apparent conflict between two salutary purposes of the act. On one hand, the act contemplates that by withholding "express or implied consent or knowledge," an owner can avoid liability under the statute. American [Rent-A-Car Company] did about all an auto leasing company can reasonably do to keep its cars out of the hands of drivers under the age of 21. Its intent was to reduce the risk of loss by eliminating a statistically accident-prone group. Actuarially speaking, the unilateral act of Mr. Davis [who rented the car, and then loaned it to a twenty-year-old] increased the risk of accident. On the other hand the statute expresses a public policy which...