Jackson v. Jackson, 17520

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of South Carolina
• Writing for the Court: MOSS; The cause came on for trial before the Honorable Legare Bates, Judge of the Richland County Court, and a jury. At the conclusion of the testimony; STUKES
• Citation: 234 S.C. 291,108 S.E.2d 86
• Parties: Irene M. JACKSON, Respondent, v. Robert JACKSON, Appellant.
• Docket Number: No. 17520,17520
• Decision Date: 06 April 1959

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108 S.E.2d 86 234 S.C. 291 Irene M. JACKSON, Respondent,
v.
Robert JACKSON, Appellant. No. 17520. Supreme Court of South Carolina. April 6, 1959.

[234 S.C. 292] Joseph L. Nettles, Columbia, for appellant.

[234 S.C. 293] Powell, George & Poston, Columbia, for respondent.

MOSS, Justice.

The respondent, Irene M. Jackson, brought this action to recover damages for personal injuries resulting from the alleged

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willful, wanton and reckless operation of an automobile by Robert Jackson, appellant herein, the husband of the respondent, while she was riding as a guest in said automobile on July 18, 1958.

The answer of the appellant denied the material allegations of the complaint, admitting however, that the automobile in which he and his wife were riding was involved in an automobile collision at the time alleged in the complaint. The answer also alleged that if the appellant was guilty of any willfullness, wantonness or recklessness in the operation of his said automobile the same was known to and acquiesced in by the respondent and that her contributory willfullness, wantonness and recklessness, in failing to take any action for her own protection, and in acquiescing and concurring in the manner in which the said automobile was driven, combined and concurred with that of the appellant, and contributed as a proximate cause of her injuries.

The cause came on for trial before the Honorable Legare Bates, Judge of the Richland County Court, and a jury. At the conclusion of the testimony, Judge Bates directed a verdict in favor of the respondent as to liability and submitted to the jury only the question of the amount of damages. In directing a verdict for the respondent the trial Judge stated that he did so because the appellant 'put up no testimony' and because 'there has not been one iota of testimony in this case which denies or contradicts the allegations of the complaint by anyone coming upon this witness stand.' The trial resulted in a verdict in favor of the respondent for actual damages.

[234 S.C. 294] The appellant gave timely notice of intention to appeal to this Court. The case is before this Court upon proper exceptions challenging the foregoing ruling of the trial Judge in directing a verdict for the respondent. The questions presented to this Court are (1) Whether ir was proper to direct a verdict in favor of the respondent when her case depended upon her own credibility; and (2) Was there evidence from which the jury could have found that the respondent was guilty of the same degree of willfullness, wantonness and recklessness as that charged against the appellant, which contributed as a proximate cause to the injuries of the respondent. The appellant asserts that more than one reasonable inference could be drawn from the evidence as to such questions and it was for the jury, not the Court, to decide the conflicting inferences and conclusions.

This case is founded upon and governed by Section 46-801 of the 1952 Code of Laws of South Carolina, which provides that 'no person transported by an owner or operator of a motor vehicle as his guest without payment for such transportation shall have a cause of action for damages against such motor vehicle or its owner or operator for injury, death or loss in case of an accident unless such accident shall have been intentional on the part of such owner or operator or caused by his heedlessness or his reckless disregard of the rights of others'. The foregoing section, as construed by this Court, restricts liability to a guest to cases where injury has resulted from either intentional or reckless misconduct of the owner or operator of the motor vehicle. Fulghum v. Bleakley, 177 S.C. 286, 181 S.E. 30; Brown v. Hill, 228 S.C. 34, 88 S.E.2d 838; Saxon v. Saxon, 231 S.C. 378, 98 S.E.2d 803 and Benton v. Pellum, 232 S.C. 26, 100 S.E.2d 534.

The accident, from which this case arose, occurred at about 3:00 o'clock A. M. on the morning of July 18, 1958. It appears from the record that the respondent is the wife of the appellant and that about midnight the wife, in the husband's car, picked him up when he got off from work. They went [234 S.C. 295] to a drive-in restaurant on Main Street in the City of Columbia and stayed there for some time. The wife testified that the husband took a drink of whiskey in her presence from a bottle that was under the seat of the automobile. She testified that she saw him put the bottle in his pocket. After leaving the drive-in restaurant

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on Main Street in Columbia, the appellant drove the automobile to the 'Goody Shop', another drive-in at Five Points in Columbia, this being the place where the respondent was employed, for the purpose of obtaining a pair of shoes which the respondent had left there. She testified that an employee of the Goody Shop came out to the car and talked to them about a place of business, and during that time the appellant made a trip to the rest room inside. The parties left the Goody Shop about 3:00 o'clock in the morning. The husband drove the automobile up Harden Street to Gervais Street, thence West on Gervais Street to the intersection of Gervais and Bull Streets. There, while stopped at a red light, they apparently decided to return to the Goody Shop because the respondent had forgotten the shoes that she intended to get when they first went to the said shop. The...