Case Name: DALE D. SCHWALBE et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. THOMAS H. JONES, JR., Defendant and Respondent
Court: Supreme Court of California
Jurisdiction: California
Decision Date: 1976-03-12
Citations: 16 Cal. 3d 514
Docket Number: S.F. No. 23072
Parties: DALE D. SCHWALBE et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. THOMAS H. JONES, JR., Defendant and Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: California Reports
Volume: 16
Pages: 514–538

Head Matter:
[S.F. No. 23072.
In Bank.
Mar. 12, 1976.]
DALE D. SCHWALBE et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. THOMAS H. JONES, JR., Defendant and Respondent.
Counsel
Herbert Resner, Stephen H. Tabor, Belli, Ashe, Ellison & Choulos and Belli, Ashe, Ellison, Choulos & Lieff for Plaintiffs and Appellants.
Robert E. Cartwright, Edward I. Pollock, William H. Tally, Stephen I. Zetterberg, Robert G. Beloud, Ned Good, David B. Baum, Ame Werchick, Elmer Low, Sanford M. Gage, Leonard Sacks and Bruce Comblum as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.
Gassett, Perry, Katzen, Frank & Bondelie, Gassett, Perry, Frank & Bondelie and Ronald L. Stefani for Defendant and Respondent.

Opinion:
Opinion
SULLIVAN, J.
In Brown v. Merlo (1973) 8 Cal.3d 855 [106 Cal.Rptr. 388, 506 P.2d 212, 66 A.L.R.3d 505], we held that former section 17158 of the Vehicle Code, the so-called "guest statute," was violative of the equal protection guarantees of the United States and California Constitutions insofar as it precluded recovery by a nonowner "guest" against the driver or one legally liable for the conduct of the driver on account of personal injury to or death of the guest proximately resulting from the simple negligence of the driver. We expressly declined at that time to intimate an opinion as to the validity of the remaining portion of the statute, dealing with injury to, or death of, an owner riding as a passenger in his own vehicle. Today we squarely confront the latter issue.
This is an action for wrongful death brought by the parents of the decedent Patricia Schwalbe Jones and arising out of an accident which occurred on the MacArthur Freeway in Oakland on June 13, 1967. Decedent, who had been recently married to defendant Thomas H. Jones, Jr., owned two automobiles, a Triumph sports car and a Renault sedan. The Renault had been inoperable for about six months and decedent had decided to tow it to Saratoga to give it to a friend. A nylon towline was obtained, and the Renault was tied by the frame to a trailer hitch on the Triumph, leaving some four to five feet between the vehicles. Decedent's husband (defendant Jones) who was to drive the Triumph, urged decedent to ride with him and to allow a friend, one Albert Pol, to steer the Renault. Decedent at first refused to do so, insisting that she steer the Renault; finally she agreed to allow Pol to steer and decided to ride in the vehicle as passenger. The parties reached the freeway without incident and were headed south, travelling at from 40 to 50 miles an hour, when the Renault began to swerve violently and the towline broke. The car left the freeway and overturned, resulting in fatal injuries to decedent. Pol sustained no serious injuries.
Decedent's parents, Dale and Leone Schwalbe, brought the instant action against decedent's husband, alleging both negligence and willful misconduct. At the close of their evidence the trial court granted defendant's motion for nonsuit on the negligence count on the ground that section 17158 precluded recovery on that theoiy. Trial proceeded on the count alleging willful misconduct, resulting in a verdict for defendant. Plaintiffs appeal from the ensuing judgment. Their major contention, as indicated above, is that the owner portion of former section 17158 (which now constitutes the whole of the present section—see fn. 1, ante) suffers from the same constitutional defect which afflicted the "guest" portion in that the distinction now created between owner-passengers and. nonowner-passengers lacks any rational legislative basis. They also contend that the trial court erred in its instructions to the juiy on the issue of willful misconduct.
I
"The . . . basic and conventional standard for reviewing economic and social welfare legislation in which there is a 'discrimination' or differentiation of treatment between classes or individuals . . manifests restraint by the judiciaiy in relation to the discretionary act of a co-equal branch of government; in so doing it invests legislation involving such differentiated treatment with a presumption of constitutionality and 'requires] merely that distinctions drawn by a challenged statute bear some rational relationship to a conceivable legitimate state purpose.' (Westbrook v. Mihaly (1970) 2 Cal.3d 765, 784 . . . .)" (D'Amico v. Board of Medical Examiners (1974) 11 Cal.3d 1, 16 [112 Cal.Rptr. 786, 520 P.2d 10].) "[T]he burden of demonstrating the invalidity of a classification under this standard rests squarely upon, the party who assails it. (Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co. (1911) 220 U.S. 61, 78-79 . . .; Blumenthal v. Board of Medical Examiners (1962) 57 Cal.2d 228, 233 . . .; see also Developments in the Law—Equal Protection (1969) 82 Harv.L.Rev. 1065, 1077-1087.)" (Id., at p. 17.)
The classification established by former section 17158 following invalidation of the guest provision of that statute in Brown v. Merlo, supra, 8 Cal.3d 855 (and the classification established by present § 17158—see fn, 1, ante), distinguishes between passengers who are not owners of the vehicle in which they are riding and passengers who are owners; whereas the former class of passengers may recover against the driver of the vehicle for injuries or death sustained due to simple negligence on his part, the latter class may not recover unless the injuries or death result from the intoxication or willful misconduct of the driver. The issue before us is therefore this: Have plaintiffs borne the burden of establishing that this classification bears no rational relationship to any conceivable legitimate state purpose?
In Patton v. La Bree (1963) 60 Cal.2d 606 [35 Cal.Rptr. 622, 387 P.2d 398], we were faced with essentially the same question. There it was contended that former section 17158 was invalid insofar as it denied recoveiy to all owner passengers, whether they gave compensation for the ride or not, while permitting recovery to nonowner passengers who had given compensation. Rejecting this contention, we stated: "It cannot be said that the classification made by the Legislature in the 1961 amendment to section 17158 [adding the owner provision] is arbitrary or that no set of facts reasonably can be conceived that would sustain it. The relationship between a driver and the owner of the car who is a passenger is obviously different from that existing between a driver and a passenger who is not an owner. In making the distinction between owner-passengers and nonowner-passengers, the Legislature may have taken into consideration the fact that an owner generally has the right to direct and control the driver, but a nonowner ordinarily does not have that right." (60 Cal.2d at p. 609.)
It is here contended, however, that the "fact" upon which our Patton reasoning was premised—i.e., "that an owner generally has the right to direct and control the driver, [while] a nonowner generally does not have that right"—is illusory. It is urged that under modem traffic conditions accidents occur with such suddenness that there is no realistic opportunity for intercession by a passenger, whether he be the owner or not. Moreover, it is pointed out, when such an opportunity does exist, verbal warning or command is often ineffective and attempts at physical acquisition of control tend to increase rather than diminish the chances of calamity.
These arguments simply miss the point of our Patton decision. The owner's right to direct and control the driver when he allows another to drive his car and himself rides as a passenger distinguishes him from the nonowner-passenger not in terms of his ability to exercise effective control but in terms of his standing to seek recovery for injuries which he sustains due to the ordinary negligence of the driver which he has selected. Thus, the thrust of our Patton holding is this: The Legislature might reasonably have concluded that the owner of an automobile who, rather than driving himself, selects another and allows him to drive, subject to the owner's right to direct and control such driving, should not be permitted to recover when the ordinary negligence of that driver results in injury to the owner.
The rationality and cogency of this determination is best considered in the context of the 1973 reenactment of former section 17158. When this court, in February of 1973, held in the Brown case that the guest portion of former section 17158 was offensive to the equal protection guarantees of the state and federal Constitutions, the Legislature found itself called upon to make a determination whether the owner portion of the statute was subject to the same constitutional objection and should be repealed along with the guest portion. Guidance in making this determination was afforded the lawmakers in one of the closing paragraphs of our Brown opinion, where we stated: "Nothing we have said is intended to imply that only the common law rules of negligence can govern automobile liability. We hold only that in undertaking any alteration or reform of such rules the Legislature may not irrationally single out one class of individuals for discriminatory treatment." (8 Cal.3d at p. 882; italics added.) Addressing itself to the owner provision with this standard in mind, the Legislature promptly reenacted it as new section 17158. Although here, as in the case of the 1961 statute, legislative history is scant with respect to the actual thinking of the lawmakers, it is not difficult to reconstruct the probable course of their reasoning:
In a line of cases extending at least back to 1966, supported by authorities from other jurisdictions extending back considerably further than that, the courts of this state had indicated that a liability insurance provision excluding the named insured or members of his family from coverage was valid and not in contravention of public policy. (See Travelers Indem. Co. v. Colonial Ins. Co., supra, 242 Cal.App.2d 227, 234 [51 Cal.Rptr. 724] ; Farmers Ins. Exch. v. Geyer (1967) 247 Cal.App.2d 625, 629-632 [55 Cal.Rptr. 861]; Farmers Ins. Exch. v. Brown (1967) 252 Cal.App.2d 120, 122 [60 Cal.Rptr. 1]; Hale v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (1967) 256 Cal.App.2d 177, 180-181.[63 Cal.Rptr. 819]; Paul Masson Co. v. Colonial Ins. Co. (1971) 14 Cal.App.3d 265, 269 [92 Cal.Rptr. 463]; cf. Farmers Ins. Exch. v. Frederick (1966) 244 Cal.App.2d 776, 781, fn. 3 [53 Cal.Rptr. 457]; see generally Annot., 46 A.L.R.3d 1061.) In view of these authorities the Legislature in 1970 had amended section 11580.1 of the Insurance Code to expressly permit such an exclusion. (Stats. 1970, ch. 300, § 4, p. 573.) Moreover, it was aware that section 11580.2 of the same code precluded recovery by the owner under the uninsured motorist provisions of his policy. (See Hale v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., supra, 256 Cal.App.2d 177, 181-183; see also State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Jacober, supra, 10 Cal.3d 193, 205.)
Thus, when in 1973 the Legislature faced the question whether the owner portion of former section 17158 should be reenacted, it did so in the context of its own prior enactments, whose practical effect was to preclude the owner from any recourse to his own policy. The lawmakers knew that in the absence of a statutory direction to the contrary, an owner-passenger injured through the ordinary negligence of one he had selected and allowed to drive his vehicle could and would seek his recovery from the insurance or personal assets of the driver. This, the Legislature obviously concluded, was simply not fair. Clearly an owner cannot recover for injuries sustained due to his own negligence while he himself is at the wheel. If, rather than driving himself, he allows another to drive and rides as a passenger, retaining some power of supervision, should he be in any better position—and at the expense of the driverl Apparently concluding that he should not, the lawmakers proceeded to reenact the owner portion of former section 17158.
Plaintiffs, in order to sustain their position that section 17158 denies them equal protection of the laws, must not be content to argue that the above reasoning was unwise, or that the purpose of the Legislature could have been better furthered by another means. Nor is it enough for them to show that the lawmakers, in addressing similar problems in similar areas, have made dissimilar judgments. The burden cast upon them is that of demonstrating that the means chosen by the Legislature were irrational, or that the purpose which they furthered was not a legitimate legislative concern. This they have not done. As the foregoing analysis indicates, the Legislature, pursúing the clearly legitimate goal of achieving a fair distribution of liability for damage caused by unreasonable conduct, concluded that the owner of a motor vehicle, whether he drives it himself or selects another to act as his chauffeur, should not recover for injuries sustained by him due to the negligent operation of that vehicle—especially in light of the fact that in the case of the surrogate driver any such recovery would be at the expense of that driver. We may disagree with this conclusion, -but we cannot brand it as beyond the pale of reason. To do so would be to seriously erode our constitutional function. We conclude therefore that the motion for nonsuit on the negligence count was properly granted.
II
Plaintiffs also contend that the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury on the issue of willful misconduct. Although the court instructed the jury on the definition of willful misconduct in accordance with former BAJI No. 5.68, it is urged that it should not have refused to give two proffered instructions, based on Williams v. Carr, supra, 68 Cal.2d 579, which indicated in essence that an intent to injure is not a necessary ingredient of willful misconduct. It is also urged that the court should not have refused to read to the jury certain sections of the Vehicle Code dealing with the basic speed law and the safe towing of vehicles.
Former BAJI No. 5.68 as then in use provided: "Wilful misconduct means intentional wrongful conduct, done either with knowledge that serious injury probably will result or with a wanton and reckless disregard of the possible results." This language, in Stating that it is the proscribed conduct which must be intentional, clearly implies that the result of that conduct in terms of injury need not be intended. The proffered instructions based on Williams v. Carr, supra, 68 Cal.2d 579, simply make explicit what is clearly implicit in the instructions given. In so doing, however, they place excessive emphasis on intended results at the expense of the quality of conduct. It was not error to refuse to give them in this case.
As to the court's refusal to read the Vehicle Code sections, we first observe that mere failure to perform a statutory duty does not in and of itself constitute willful misconduct. (Porter v. Hofman (1938) 12 Cal.2d 445, 448 [85 P.2d 447]; Meek v. Fowler (1935) 3 Cal.2d 420, 425 [45 P.2d 194], and cases and authorities there cited). We recognize of course that such failure may do so when combined with other circumstances indicating that a violation occurred with knowledge that serious injuiy would probably result or with a wanton and reckless disregard of the possible results. {Porter v. Hofman, supra; Meek v. Fowler; supra, at p. 426.) A mere reading of the Vehicle Code sections, as plaintiffs requested, would have been seriously misleading to the jury, for they might well have inferred therefrom that mere violation of such sections constituted willful misconduct. It was the responsibility of plaintiffs to offer proper qualifying instructions, and in light of their failure to do so, the court properly refused to read the Vehicle Code sections as requested by them. (See Downing v. Barrett Mobile Home Transport, Inc. (1974) 38 Cal.App.3d 519, 523 [113 Cal.Rptr. 277], and cases and authorities there cited.)
The judgment is affirmed.
Wright, C. J., McComb, J., Clark, J., and Richardson, J., concurred.
In 1973, following our Brown decision, section 17158 was amended. All reference to "guests" was deleted, but the provision as it related to owners was reenacted. The section now provides: "No person riding in or occupying a vehicle owned by him and driven by another person with his permission has any right of action for civil damages against the driver of the vehicle or against any other person legally liable for the conduct of the driver on account of personal injury to or the death of the owner during the ride, unless the plaintiff in any such action establishes that the injury or death proximately resulted from the intoxication or willful misconduct of the driver."
Although the event which underlies the instant litigation occurred prior to our Brown decision, and the applicable version of section 17158 was technically that in effect prior to the 1973 amendment, the current statute contains identical language relative to actions by owner-passengers. Therefore we essentially consider here the validity of the current statute.
We are aware, of course, that this court in Brown v. Merlo, supra, 8 Cal.3d 855, used language which indicated some departure from the traditional equal protection standard. Thus, our opinion there might be read to imply that a court, in determining whether a legislative classification bears a rational relationship to any legitimate state purpose, should restrict its examination to "justifications [which] have traditionally been advanced in both judicial precedent and academic commentaries . . . ." {Id, at p. 864; see also p. 865, fn. 7.) Further, our use there of words such as "sufficient" and "substantial" in varying combinations describing the basic standard might be seen to suggest a lightening of the burden borne by the assailant under the traditional test. Finally, the technique of expressing a suggested legislative purpose in terms of a "superclass" ("recipients of hospitality"—id, at pp. 864-866), and thereupon proceeding to level the charge of underinclusion at the particular statute, might be interpreted to ignore the fundamental principle that the Legislature, in dealing with what it deems to be an evil, is not held to the rigid choice of regulating all cases affected by that evil or none at all. (See Silver v. Silver (1929) 280 U.S. 117, 123-124 [74 L.Ed. 221, 225-226, 50 S.Ct. 57, 65 A.L.R. 939]; Werner v. Southern Cal. etc. Newspapers (1950) 35 Cal.2d 121, 132-133 [216 P.2d 825, 13 A.L.R.2d 252].)
We are persuaded that to elevate the aforesaid language into doctrinal concept, and thus to dilute the traditional standard which we have here expressed, would result in the substitution of judicial policy determination for established constitutional principle. (See Note, Judicial Activism in Tort Reform (1974) 21 U.C.L.A.L.Rev. 1566, 1569; see also Note, The Supreme Court of California 1972-1973 (1974) 62 Cal. L. Rev. 406, 648, 652-660; Note, Legislative Purpose, Rationality, and Equal Protection (1972) 82 Yale L.J. 123, 132-138.) Accordingly we note our determination, manifested by our restatement of the governing constitutional principles in D'Amico v. Board of Medical Examiners, supra, 11 Cal.3d 1, that the language of Brown to which we have adverted should not be interpreted as working any fundamental change in the constitutional principles we here reiterate and reaffirm.
Even if plaintiffs' approach to Patton is adopted, we are not persuaded that modem traffic conditions and the dangers inherent in physical intercession obliterate any relevant distinction between the owner-passenger and the nonowner-passenger in this respect. Admonitions by an owner relative to speed and careful conduct are bound to be heeded to a greater extent than similar admonitions by one who does not own the vehicle in which the parties are travelling. The fact that the respective situations of the owner and nonowner are similar in some respects from the point of view of effective control of the driver does not alter the fact that in general an owner is capable of exercising more of such control.
The statute distinguishes between cases involving ordinary negligence and those in which injury or death proximately results from intoxication or willful misconduct on the part of the driver. This clearly represents a determination by the Legislature that, whereas ordinary negligence on the part of the driver should not render him liable to suit by the owner who allows him to drive and then proceeds to ride as a passenger, certain forms of more heinous conduct on the part of the driver should be treated differently—at least in the absence of equally reprehensible conduct on the part of the owner-passenger which would prevent or diminish recovery under settled common law principles. (See Williams v. Carr (1968) 68 Cal.2d 579 [68 Cal.Rptr. 305, 440 P.2d 505], and cases there discussed and cited.)
As we have noted in footnote 1, ante, the version of section 17158 which is here applicable as a technical matter is that in effect prior to the 1973 amendment. However, because the pre-1973 and post-1973 statutes contain identical language relative to actions by owner-passengers, because our decision in Patton has already explained the rational basis underlying the pre-1973 statute (see text accompanying fns. 3 and 4, ante), and because all of the considerations we now proceed to discuss were applicable in substance when the pre-1973 version of section 17158 was passed in 1961 (see especially fns. 7 and 9, post), we make the following observations from the point of view of the 1973 statute now in effect.
It is interesting to note that Assembly Bill No. 1094 as originally introduced contemplated repeal of former section 17158 in its entirety, but that upon recommendation of the Assembly Committee on Judiciary the bill was amended before passage to preserve the owner portion of the former section. (See 2 Assem.J. (1973-1974 Reg. Sess.) p. 2646.) In Brown, of course, as we have pointed out above, we specifically refrained from expressing an opinion as to the validity of the owner portion. (See 8 Cal.3d at p. 862, fn. 3.)
Travelers Indemnity, the first reported California case to uphold the provision in question, clearly implied that such provisions were available and in use in this state long before the date of that case. (See 242 Cal.App.2d at pp. 234-235, fn. 7, and accompanying text.) It is likely that the 1961 Legislature, in passing the pre-1973 version of section 17158, did so in full awareness of the prevalence of such provisions. Thus the reasoning which follows is as applicable to the 1961 version (i.e., the version technically here before us—see fn. 5, ante) as it is to the present version.
In State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Jacober (1973) 10 Cal.3d 193, at page 208 [110 Cal.Rptr. 1, 514 P.2d 953], we disapproved certain language in the Travelers Indemnity and Hale cases. In Argonaut Ins. Co. v. Transport Indem. Co. (1972) 6 Cal.3d 496, at page 505 [99 Cal.Rptr. 617, 492 P.2d 673], we disapproved certain other conclusions reached in Travelers Indemnity. The material disapproved in those cases, however, was not relevant to the point here at issue.
Section 11580.1, subdivision (c), has provided since the enactment of the section in 1970 that a policy of automobile liability insurance may by appropriate policy provision be made inapplicable to: . (5) Liability for bodily injury to an insured."
We may judicially notice as a matter of generalized knowledge (Evid. Code, § 451, subd. (b)) that substantially all such policies presently contain exclusions of this nature—which exclusions, if stated in unambiguous terms clearly operate to preclude an owner from recovering under his own liability policy under any circumstances, including those here at issue. The case of State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Jacober, supra, simply held that the particular exclusion there in question was ambiguous with respect to whether the named insured was to be excluded from recovery when a second "insured," the permissive user-driver, negligently injured him. It is to be assumed that insurance companies will be studious to avoid such ambiguity in the future by modelling their exclusions upon that which was approved in the Geyer and Brown cases, a course which we clearly invited in Jacober (see 10 Cal.3d at p. 206). In so doing they will merely avail themselves of an exclusion expressly permitted by section 11580.1 of the Insurance Code. Any suggestion in Jacober that this would contravene some vaguely conceived public policy (see 10 Cal.3d at pp. 205-206) must surely founder upon the explicit language used by the Legislature to authorize such exclusions. (See Farmers Ins. Exch. v. Geyer, supra, 247 Cal.App.2d 625, 629-632; Travelers Indem. Co. v. Colonial Ins. Co., supra, 242 Cal.App.2d 227, 234; see generally Annot., supra, 46 A.L.R.3d 1061.)
As here relevant, Insurance Code section 11580.2, subdivision (b) (2), provides today, as it provided in 1970: "The term 'uninsured motor vehicle' shall not include an automobile owned by the named insured or any resident of the same household ."
We are urged to consider the fact that in some cases, among which the case at bar might be included, the surrogate driver takes the wheel not at the insistence or instance of the owner but pursuant to his own request or demand. In light of this, and in view of the fact that existing common law principles might well be extended to eliminate or ameliorate the extent of a negligent drivers liability to an owner guilty of negligence in selecting that driver (see generally Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804 [119 Cal.Rptr. 858, 532 P.2d 1226]), it is contended that the net effect of the present statute is only to bar from recovery those persons who were not negligent in their selection of a surrogate driver. This argument, however, falls far short of demonstrating that the Legislature was acting in an irrational manner when it determined that an owner should not be able to recover against a driver he has allowed to act as his chauffeur unless that driver is guilty of heinous and totally unforeseeable conduct such as intoxication or willful misconduct.
The guest statutes governing aircraft and pleasure boats (Pub. Util. Code, § 21406 and Harb. & Nav. Code, § 661.1 respectively), which made no distinction between owner "guests" and nonowner "guests," were repealed in 1973. (Stats. 1973, ch. 803, p. 1425.) No additional provision was added relative to owners. As the United States Supreme Court has stated: "There is no constitutional requirement that a regulation, in other respects permissible, must reach every class to which it might be applied____It is enough that the . statute strikes at the evil where it is felt and reaches the class of cases where it most frequently occurs." (Silver v. Silver, supra, 280 U.S. 117, 123-124 [74 L.Ed. 221, 225-226]; see also Werner v. Southern Cal. etc. Newspapers, supra, 35 Cal.2d 121, 132-133.)
It belabors the obvious to note that the negligent surrogate driver is not freed of all liability for the results of his negligence by the statute we here consider. Thus, other parties who may sustain injuries due to the driver's negligence, including other passengers in the vehicle, may seek recoveiy against him. It is only the owner, who has entrusted the conduct of the vehicle to the driver, who is barred from seeking such recovery—and even he may recover if the driver's conduct descends to the level of willful misconduct.
Our conclusion renders unnecessary a consideration of whether the alleged legislative purposes involved with respect to the "guest" portion of former section 17158—to wit, the encouragement of hospitality and the elimination of collusive fraud—provide an additional basis or bases for the provision we here consider.
Plaintiffs belatedly suggest that the version of section 17158 applicable to this case (i.e., the 1961 version—see fn. 1, ante) was invalid because it failed to comply with the requirements of article IV, section 9 (formerly § 24), of the state Constitution. As here relevant, the indicated section provides: "A statute shall embrace but one subject, which shall be expressed in its title. If a statute embraces a subject not expressed in its title, only the part not expressed is void." The argument rests upon the wholly erroneous premise that the "title" of section 17158 prior to 1973 was that appearing in the marginal notes of the applicable statute and the code version, i.e., "Liability to 'Guest.' " This "title," it is urged, cannot comprehend a provision relating to liability to owner-passengers. The statute applicable to this case (Stats. 1961 (Reg. Sess.), ch. 1600), however, is entitled "An act to amend Section 17158 of the Vehicle Code, relating to the automobile guest statute." The section thus amended (the 1959 version) was enacted as a part of a comprehensive revision of the Vehicle Code (Stats. 1959 (Reg. Sess.), ch. 3) and is found in Division 9 ("Civil Liability"), Chapter 1 ("Civil Liability of Owners and Operators of Vehicles"). We believe that the placement of section 17158 in this statutory context results in no violation of article IV, section 9. That section "must be construed liberally so as to uphold legislation all parts of which are reasonably germane, and a provision which is auxiliary to and promotive of the main purpose of the act or has a necessary and natural connection with that purpose is germane within this rule." (Metropolitan Water Dist. v. Marquardt (1963) 59 Cal.2d 159, 172-173 [28 Cal.Rptr. 724, 379 P.2d 28].)
Among the Vehicle Code sections requested to be read were section 21711 (towed vehicles swerving), section 22350 (basic speed law), section 24002 (vehicle not equipped or unsafe), section 29003 (safety chain), and section 41104 (train of vehicles).