Tennyson v. Kern, 9515

• Decision Date: 10 January 1956
• Docket Number: No. 9515,9515
• Citation: 76 S.D. 136,74 N.W.2d 316
• Parties: Larry TENNYSON by Knute Tennyson, his guardian ad litem, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Fred KERN, by Jean Kern, his guardian ad litem, Defendant and Respondent.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 316

74 N.W.2d 316

76 S.D. 136

Larry TENNYSON by Knute Tennyson, his guardian ad litem Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Fred KERN, by Jean Kern, his guardian ad litem, Defendant and Respondent.

No. 9515.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

Jan. 10, 1956.

George A. Bangs, W. A. McCullen, Joseph M. Butler, Rapid City, for plaintiff and appellant.

Whiting, Lynn & Freiberg, Rapid City, for defendant and respondent.

SMITH, Judge.

Plaintiff's complaint alleges that while the infant plaintiff was a passenger for compensation in an automobile driven by defendant, Fred Kern, the defendant operated such motor vehicle in a negligent manner so as to drive the same off the highway and cause same to upset and that as a result thereof plaintiff suffered described serious and permanent injuries. The answer admits the accident; denies that defendant was negligent or that plaintiff was a passenger for compensation. As a separate defense defendant alleges that if there existed a contract whereby defendant was transporting plaintiff for compensation at the time of the accident, the infant defendant disaffirms the same. The trial resulted in a directed verdict for defendant and plaintiff has appealed.

Stated in the light most favorable to plaintiff, these are the controlling facts. Arrangements fhad been made for holding the junior-senior banquet of the Quinn, South Dakota, high school at the Alex Johnson Hotel in Rapid City on April 25, 1953. For some two months four junior boys, Larry Tennyson, Fred Kern, Jerry Kjerstad and Delmar Paulson had been making their plans to attend. The plan was that they would go in Tennyson's car and all would share the expenses. However, shortly before April 25th Tennyson's car was placed in a garage for repairs, and on the 24th it was apparent it might not be available. Thereupon the request was made that Fred Kern take his car. He said that if he did they would have to share the expense because he couldn's afford to take his car. The others agreed that if he would take his car, they would share the expenses.

Although the boys attended Quinn high school only Paulson and plaintiff Tennyson lived in Quinn. Kjerstad lived north of Quinn, and defendant Kern lived just out of Cottonwood approximately thirteen miles to the east of Quinn. Rapid City is about sixty miles west of Quinn. These cities are located along U. S. Highway 14-16, extending east and west through South Dakota.

On the morning of April 25th Kern drove to Tennyson's home in Quinn. He had become uncertain as to whether he would go, and was not dressed to go. Shortly Kjerstad arrived. He was ready to go. The boys drove to the garage to ascertain the condition of Tennyson's car, and discovered it was not available. After some urging Kern agreed to go. The boys drove to the Kern home out of Cottonwood. While Kern was bathing his brother had the car serviced at a gas station in Cottonwood. The suit which Kern intended to wear at the banquet was at a cleaners in Philip some distance east of Cottonwood. So when Kern was ready he drove east from Cottonwood on U. S. Highway 14-16, intending to go to Philip. His plan then was to return west over that highway to Quinn where they would pick up Paulson, and also to allow Tennyson to stop at his home and complete his preparation for departure for Rapid City. However, on the way east to Philip the car was precipitated through a guardrail and into a deep ditch, and both Tennyson and Kjerstad were very seriously injured. Plaintiff's injuries resulted from the failure of defendant Kern to exercise ordinary care in the control of his car. Kern was seventeen years old at the time in question.

We shall separately state and discuss the three propositions argued by the parties.

Whether plaintiff Tennyson was a guest without compensation or a passenger for reward is the first question we are asked to decide. The controlling statute reads:

'No person transported by the owner or operator of a motor vehicle as his guest without compensation for such transportation shall have cause of action for damages against such owner or operator for injury, death, or loss, in case of accident, unless such accident shall have been caused by the willful and wanton misconduct of the owner or operator of such motor vehicle, and unless such willful and wanton misconduct contributed to the injury, death, or loss for which the action is brought; and no person so transported shall have such cause of action if he has willfully or by want of ordinary care brought the injury upon himself.' SDC 44.0362.

It is conceded that neither willful nor wanton conduct on the part of the defendant Kern, nor contributory negligence, on the part of Tennyson, are involved.

According to our decisions the provisions of this statute do not restrict the rights of one who is transported in a motor vehicle for a benefit to the owner or operator so real, tangible, and substantial as to serve not only as the inducing cause of the transportation, but to completely overshadow any consideration of mere hospitality growing out of friendship or relationship. Gunderson v. Sopiwnik, S.D., 66 N.W.2d 510; Scotvold v. Scotvold, 68 S.D. 53, 298 N.W. 266; Forsling v. Mickelson, 66 S.D. 366, 283 N.W. 169; and Schiltz v. Picton, 66 S.D. 301, 282 N.W. 519. We have also held that no change of meaning was intended by substitution of the term 'compensation' for the word 'payment' by the 1939 revision. Gunderson v. Sopiwnik, supra. In McMahon v. De Kraay, 70 S.D. 180, 16 N.W.2d 308, 311, in treating of the guest statute of Arkansas which employs the word 'payment', based upon a review of the decisions of other courts, we said,

'Reason, and these authorities, have induced the conclusion that notwithstanding the fact that a trip may have a social complexion, if the owner of the vehicle insists upon a prearrangement by which his passenger friend is obligated to share the expense, the provision thus made is for such a payment for the transportation as will defeat the relationship of host and guest under the Arkansas statute.'

We now hold that in described circumstances a person so transported is not a guest without compensation within the contemplation of SDC 44.0362, supra. Cf. Annotation 10 A.L.R.2d 1351.

The evidence is in conflict. In our opinion it would support a finding by the jury that Kern insisted upon such a prearrangement as did obligate his friends to share the expense of the trip to Rapid City, and therefore the conclusion that they were not to be guests without compensation within the meaning of the quoted guest statute.

The second proposition the parties argue, under the assumption a jury had found Kern had insisted on such an obligation on the part of his friends as removed them from the reach of the guest statute, is whether the evidence is sufficient to support a finding by a jury that the trip to Philip in the opposite direction from Rapid City to retrieve Kern's suit was comprehended by that agreement.

The inquiry is not whether, when it came time to perform their agreement, the passengers would have voluntarily included the expense of the preparatory trip to Philip; it is whether they had obligated themselves so to do.

If there was an agreement to share the expense of the Philip trip it must have been manifested by conduct. Cf. Williston, Contracts, Rev.Ed., Sec. 22A. According to the testimony of the parties there was no express agreement dealing with that expense. Their original informal contract comprehended nothing but the expense of the planned trip to Rapid City and into the Black Hills. The Philip trip was not then contemplated. If all had gone as planned Kern would have completed his preparations and have left Cottonwood that morning for Quinn to pick up the other three and proceed west to Rapid City. However, he had changed his mind during the night and he drove to Quinn to acquaint his friends of that fact. When he changed his mind again, it became necessary for him to go back east to ready himself for the banquet and to get his suit. Plaintiff and Kjerstad accompanied him on that trip. The fourth party to their original agreement was not there and had no part in what followed. Kjerstad was asked if he rode to Philip for the ride with his friends, and made answer, 'He asked us to go along. He didn't want to go himself. He had to get his suit.' This statement of fact remains undisputed in the record. Further, it is apparent that they were not ready to go to Rapid City as they left Cottonwood for Philip. They had to return to Quinn to permit plaintiff to complete his preparations and to pick up the fourth boy.

We find it completely impossible to discern a rational basis in these facts upon which to erect an inference that the parties assented to a new obligation to add the trip to Philip to their original agreement, or to recognize the whole as one undertaking. The described back tracking was caused by and was solely for the benefit of Kern. Plaintiff and Kjerstad merely accompanied him as he completed his preparations to go on the trip they had arranged.

At the trial the court first received and then struck from the evidence testimony of plain...