Opinion ID: 2144956
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Identity of the Driver.

Text: Although Dwayne Miller's father owned the pickup, and Dwayne was its principal driver, Dwayne contends that he was not driving it at the time; he was too drunk to drive, according to him. The plaintiff contends that granting summary judgment on the identity question was error because there is an inference that an owner (or here, a principal driver) who was present in the vehicle was the operator, Marean v. Petersen, 259 Iowa 557, 565, 144 N.W.2d 906, 911 (1966), and that circumstantial evidence also supported her claim that Dwayne was driving. The defendant rejoins that the inference in question is not available to the plaintiff because (1) this issue was not raised in the district court, and (2) the inference applies only if no direct evidence is available; here, there was Dwayne's testimony that Jacobsen was the driver. A. Preservation of error. We disagree with the defendants' contention that the inference was not raised. The plaintiff's memo attached to her resistance to the summary judgment motion stated: The defendant was the responsible party for the vehicle, [and t]he responsible person is always suspected to be the driver of the vehicle. Moreover, the district court considered the issue because the inference was discussed in its summary judgment ruling. The court noted that an investigating officer believed that Dwayne, not Jacobsen, was driving because Dwayne was the responsible party for the pickup. It then stated: In the normal driving situation this is a perfectly logical assumption of course. However, in this case the defendant explained that the plaintiff took the wheel because he felt defendant Miller was too intoxicated to drive [deposition citations]. There is no evidence, whatsoever, to contradict this explanation. Because we consider the issue to have been before the district court, we address its application in this case. B. Application of the inference. The general rule is that the [d]efendant's control of the motor vehicle which inflicted the injury may be presumed where he was its owner, ... where he was its owner and was present in the vehicle at the time of the accident, or where the driver was the one regularly employed by the owner to drive. Such presumptions as to control may be rebutted and they disappear where evidence is produced as to the facts; but the burden of coming forward with such evidence is on defendant. 61 C.J.S. Motor Vehicles § 511.27, at 439-40 (1970). The general rule is also stated in 8 Am.Jur.2d Automobiles & Highway Traffic § 996, at 156 (1980): In a number of motor vehicle accident cases it has been necessary to determine who, as between the owner and other occupants of the vehicle, was driving such vehicle at the time of the accident, where there is no direct testimony by survivors or eyewitnesses. It has been held in some jurisdictions that upon proof of the defendant's ownership of a motor vehicle involved in an accident, a presumption or inference arises that at the time of the accident the vehicle was in such owner's possession and was being operated by him, and such a presumption has been extended to a situation where the vehicle was in the possession of a bailee. This rule has been adopted particularly where there is a statute making proof of registration prima facie evidence of ownership and of operation by the owner or his agent. This presumption from proof of ownership is rebuttable and disappears from the case when evidence is introduced from which the nonexistence of the fact in issue may be inferred. In Marean we said: In any event identity of the driver, being the focal point of our present problem is otherwise established by the inference, sometimes referred to as a rebuttable presumption, that an owner-occupant of a vehicle involved in an accident was being operated by him where there is no direct testimony as to identity of the driver. 259 Iowa at 564, 144 N.W.2d at 910-11. Both parties cite Marean. The plaintiff relies on it because it recognizes the inference, and the defendants rely on it because it says that the inference is not available if there is direct evidence to the contrary. Id. The question in the present case is whether the inference that Dwayne was driving was destroyed because Dwayne's own testimony tended to rebut the inference. We think not. Despite the broad language of Marean, we believe that evidence sufficient to destroy the inference must be objective evidence, not evidence that is likely to be motivated by the interest of the witness. Dwayne Miller could not reasonably be seen as an objective witness. If it is established that he was the driver, he would face possible civil liability and prosecution for criminal acts. We modify Marean to require that evidence sufficient to rebut the inference be objective in character. This modification, we believe, is supported by the same rationale as that underlying the analogous inference that a driver is operating a motor vehicle with the owner's consent. See, e.g., Farm & City Ins. Co. v. Gilmore, 539 N.W.2d 154, 159 (Iowa 1995); Moritz v. Maack, 437 N.W.2d 898, 900 (Iowa 1989). The rationale for the latter inference is said to be probability, fairness in the light of defendant's superior access to the evidence, and the social policy of promoting safety by widening the responsibility in borderline cases of owners for injuries caused by their vehicles. McCormick on Evidence § 343, at 581 (John William Strong ed., 4th ed. 1992). Because the only direct evidence tending to rebut the inference could not be fairly characterized as objective in this case, it should not have negated the inference. Also, Marean itself suggests that the inference will not be totally destroyed just because other evidence is available. In that case, there was circumstantial evidence of the driver's identity (the position of the owner's body behind the steering wheel) yet we considered the inference together with the circumstantial evidence on the question of identification. Marean, 259 Iowa at 564-65, 144 N.W.2d at 911. In addition to the inference concerning the identity of the driver, circumstantial evidence was produced by the plaintiff tending to generate a fact issue. See Cuna Mut. Ins. Soc. v. Matzke, 532 N.W.2d 759, 760 (Iowa 1995) (the resisting party is accorded all possible inferences reasonably deducible from the evidence). A friend of Jacobsen testified that Jacobsen did not like to drive, even when he was sober. There was also testimony that Dwayne usually drove his own vehicle, and, of course, Dwayne had a motive to falsify his testimony for the reasons stated. Because the plaintiff raised a genuine issue of material fact as to the identity of the driver, it was error to grant summary judgment in favor of the defendants.