Title: Chapman v. Parker

State: kansas

Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court

Document:

203 Kan. 440 (1969)
454 P.2d 506
FRANCES MARIE CHAPMAN, Appellant,
v.
ELLEN PARKER, Appellee.
No. 45,339

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed May 17, 1969.
John E. Shamberg, of Kansas City, argued the cause, and Charles Schnider and Jacob F. May, Jr., both of Kansas City, were with him on the brief for the appellant.
Roger D. Stanton, of Kansas City, argued the cause, and Lee E. Weeks, Leonard O. Thomas, J.D. Lysaught, Robert H. Bingham, Ervin G. Johnston, Miles D. Mustain and George Maier, Jr., all of Kansas City, were with him on the brief for the appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
SCHROEDER, J.:
This is an action for damages arising from personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff who was about to enter the automobile of the defendant. The trial court sustained the defendant's motion for summary judgment on the ground the plaintiff was a guest within the meaning of K.S.A. 8-122b, which required the showing of gross and wanton negligence as a basis for recovery, gross and wanton negligence not having been alleged by the plaintiff in her amended petition. Appeal has been duly perfected by the plaintiff.
*441 The only question presented is whether the plaintiff (appellant) was a guest within the meaning of the Kansas guest statute at the time of her alleged injury.
After the filing of the first amended petition, it was stipulated and agreed for the purpose of submitting the defendant's motion for summary judgment to the trial court that Frances Marie Chapman (plaintiff-appellant) was standing with one foot on the street and the other foot on the inside of the defendant's (appellee's) automobile on or near the right rear door sill. The plaintiff was preparing to enter the defendant's automobile through the right rear door as she was in this position. The plaintiff's hands at this time were on the defendant's automobile, when it moved forward.
The plaintiff at the time she was in the above stated position was preparing to enter the defendant's automobile for the purpose of riding to church with the defendant, who was driving. The date of this occurrence was December 20, 1964, and the location was the intersection of Seminary and Rainbow Streets in Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas. The plaintiff had not promised to give nor had she given the defendant any consideration for this ride.
The plaintiff's first amended petition alleged the defendant was guilty of ordinary negligence, and the plaintiff does not contend the defendant was guilty of gross or wanton negligence.
The defendant contends the plaintiff was a guest within the meaning of the guest statute.
Upon the foregoing facts the trial court sustained the defendant's motion for summary judgment, holding that the plaintiff was a guest within the meaning of the Kansas guest statute.
The question herein presented is not one requiring us to define the word "guest" to determine whether the guest statute applies, but is a question whether the provisions of the statute have application at all.
The appellant contends the guest statute, by its terms, is not invoked by the factual situation here presented.
K.S.A. 8-122b provides:
*442 Based upon the emphasized language above, the statute clearly imposes the burden of proving gross and wanton conduct only upon those who are transported.
We think the appellant's position is meritorious. Under the facts the appellant was not being transported; she had not even entered the appellee's vehicle at the time she was injured. Consequently, the guest statute is inapplicable and the appellant stated a cause of action in ordinary negligence.
Innumerable opinions have been written by this court, and in other jurisdictions, construing and interpreting the meaning of guest statutes. The holdings of the courts are not in agreement as to when the status of host and guest is established or ceases. Many of the cases on the subject are collected in an annotation in 50 A.L.R.2d 974 where a variety of holdings may be found. The Iowa Supreme Court in Rainsbarger v. Shepherd, 254 Iowa 486, 118 N.W.2d 41 (1962), held on facts similar to those presented in the instant case that the plaintiff was a guest while attempting to enter the car; that her "`riding in'" had started. The Iowa court reviewed the many decisions from other jurisdictions touching the factual situation here presented, and reference is made thereto for a discussion of these cases.
The Kansas Supreme Court in Marsh v. Hogeboom, 167 Kan. 349, 205 P.2d 1190, held that a plaintiff who had departed from a vehicle and was in the process of closing a door on that automobile when it moved forward, dragging her with it, was a guest and, therefore, was required to show gross and wanton negligence against the owner or operator of the vehicle in order to recover. The court there discusses the fact that the act of closing the door must be considered the natural and normal act culminating the gratuitous undertaking that is referred to in the guest statute. In the opinion the court said:
In summing up its discussion of the case the court said:
The appellee relies upon Marsh v. Hogeboom, supra, and in particular the language emphasized, contending that the facts in the instant case involve the acts initiating the gratuitous undertaking. It is argued if the act of closing a door of an automobile after the guest has alighted is "the natural, the normal act culminating the gratuitous undertaking," then certainly a guest who is entering a vehicle through an opened door, having placed one foot inside the automobile and having placed both hands on the automobile, is well within the natural, the normal acts initiating the gratuitous undertaking.
The appellee also relies upon Cohee v. Hutson, 143 Kan. 784, 57 P.2d 35, where the plaintiff had departed from a vehicle in which he was riding, during an interruption of the trip, and was in the process of placing a block under the front wheel of the stopped vehicle when it moved forward and injured the plaintiff. The court there held the plaintiff was a guest within the Kansas guest statute and was required to prove gross and wanton negligence before he could recover against the owner and operator of the vehicle.
The Cohee decision, however, is distinguishable because the parties agreed the guest statute was involved, and the court was not required to determine the issue for which the appellee cites the case.
*444 In Economou v. Anderson, 4 Ohio App.2d 1, 211 N.E.2d 82 (1965), the Ohio court was presented with a factual situation almost identical to the facts herein, except that the defendant slammed the door shut and crushed the plaintiff's right foot and leg between the door and the frame of the vehicle. The language of the Ohio guest statute is similar to the Kansas statute in that it absolves the operator of a motor vehicle of liability for injury resulting to a guest from ordinary negligence in the operation of such motor vehicle while the guest is being transported, without payment, in or upon such motor vehicle. The Ohio court, in holding the plaintiff was not a guest within the meaning of the statute, said:
Similarly, Smith v. Pope, 53 Cal. App. 2d 43, 127 P.2d 292 (1942), involves a factual situation almost identical to the instant case. There the driver's foot slipped off the clutch pedal, while the plaintiff was in the process of entering on the passenger side of the vehicle, and the passenger was injured. The pertinent part of the California guest statute provided:
The court there, holding the plaintiff was not a guest under the above statute, said:
It is noted that both the Ohio decision (Economou v. Anderson, supra) and the California decision (Smith v. Pope, supra) mention the fact that their guest statutes are in derogation of the common law and, as a consequence, must be strictly construed. By reason thereof, the appellee challenges the persuasive effect of these decisions in Kansas because K.S.A. 77-109 provides:
The foregoing statute has been considered in connection with the Kansas guest statute in Wright v. Pizel, 168 Kan. 493, 214 P.2d 328.
In spite of the foregoing statute, which requires a liberal construction of the Kansas guest statute to promote its object, the statute should not be extended beyond the situations it was intended to remedy. (Thomas v. Hughes, 177 Kan. 347, 353, 279 P.2d 286.) It should not be extended, therefore, to situations involving one who was not transported. The statute is designed to serve as a shield, and not a sword, for the owner or operator of an automobile. (Ehrsam v. Borgen, 185 Kan. 776, 780, 347 P.2d 260.)
The factual situation presented herein has not previously been considered by this court in connection with the guest statute, and while authorities from other states interpreting similar statutes are helpful, they do not control in construing our own guest statute.
Here the appellee had not yet begun to physically transport the appellant. Therefore, the appellant was not one "who is transported," and she does not have to allege and prove gross and wanton negligence to recover damages from the appellee.
*446 Marsh v. Hogeboom, supra, is distinguishable on the ground that the plaintiff there had ridden with the defendant  had been transported  and was injured after she had alighted from the vehicle but was in the process of closing the door. The act of closing the door was part of the gratuitous undertaking performed by the defendant. The fact that the plaintiff had been transported in the Marsh case indicates that the terms of the statute applied, and the only question was: When did the transportation cease under the guest statute? Here the appellant had not been transported, and the statute would not be applicable in the first place.
We hold the appellant in the instant case was not being transported, and the guest statute applies only to those who are actually being transported.
Accordingly, the judgment of the lower court is reversed.