Opinion ID: 1605156
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: liability of nancy anderson

Text: The appellee Nichols charged in his declaration that Nancy Anderson was the owner of the Nova and Larry Brooks was driving the automobile with the full permission and consent of Nancy Anderson and as her agent. It is undisputed that Mrs. Anderson owned the Nova automobile which was being driven by Brooks on a trip to Jackson from Yazoo City. Brooks was accompanied by his aunt, Mrs. Maybelle Johnson. Mrs. Maybelle Johnson was also the aunt of Nancy Anderson. Nancy Anderson and Brooks were cousins. Mrs. Anderson was a resident of Chicago, Illinois, and had bought the Nova for her personal use while on visits to Mississippi. She had first left the vehicle with her mother who resided at a residence on Lynch Street in Jackson. After her mother's death, she left the Nova with her aunt, Mrs. Maybelle Johnson, who lived in Yazoo City. Nancy Anderson owned rental property in Yazoo City which Mrs. Johnson looked after and collected rents from the tenants. Mrs. Anderson also owned the mother's former home on Lynch Street in Jackson. It is undisputed that Mrs. Maybelle Johnson had two children and a grandchild living at the Lynch Street house. These family members did not pay rent to Mrs. Anderson. There was also vague testimony from Brooks that there were several students from Jackson State University who lived on the property as renters. Mrs. Anderson testified, by deposition, that Mrs. Johnson only collected rents on the Yazoo City properties and that she did not collect rents on the Lynch Street property. She further testified that Mrs. Johnson frequently went to Jackson to visit her children who lived at the Lynch Street address. Mrs. Anderson described her arrangement with Mrs. Johnson's children as being one whereby the children did not pay rent on the property and that any rent that they collected from others was to be used by them for the upkeep of the house. In any event, there is no evidence in the record to support a finding that Mrs. Johnson was on her way to the Lynch Street property in Jackson to collect rents for Mrs. Anderson on the day of the accident. The only testimony with regard to the collection of rents came from the defendant, Brooks, who testified that he and Mrs. Johnson went to the Lynch Street property on Wednesday or Thursday of the week before the wreck to collect rent. Brooks also testified that in addition to driving Mrs. Johnson to Jackson at her request, he was going to attempt to take care of some personal matters between 3:00 and 5:00 that afternoon. When asked what kind of work he planned to do at 504 Lynch Street, his reply was Ordinarily, she was going to do some sweeping and do some washing, dishes, furniture, moving around the furniture, checking on lighting fixtures. My tasks were if I knew how to put in, hookup a light, put in a light, go out into the yard and pick up garbage. And in January I was going to be doing some yard cleaning, primarily, and doing some climbing up in the attic and sorting through old things and getting a lot of the old furniture or old papers out of the attic in different rooms. If there is any liability on the part of Mrs. Anderson for the injuries sustained by the plaintiff Nichols, it must necessarily be predicated upon an agency relationship existing between Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Johnson and the sub-agency relationship of Brooks as the driver of the Nova at the request of Mrs. Johnson, who could not drive. [3] Therefore, the underlying question with regard to the liability of Mrs. Anderson is whether, under the facts presented by this record, there was a jury issue made as to whether Mrs. Johnson was about the business of Mrs. Anderson, pursuant to Mrs. Anderson's authorization, either express or implied, or whether Mrs. Johnson was going to Jackson for her own personal reasons, such as visiting her children who lived at the Lynch Street address when the accident occurred and in which Mrs. Johnson was killed. There is no evidence of any agreement between Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Johnson with respect to the Lynch Street property. To the contrary, Mrs. Anderson testified that Mrs. Johnson did not collect rents from the Lynch Street property nor look after it. The testimony of Brooks that ordinarily she would do some sweeping and do some washing, dishes, moving around the furniture, checking on light fixtures and that he would pick up the garbage and clean up the yard is more consistent with the theory that Mrs. Johnson was visiting the Lynch Street property for the purpose of visiting and looking after her children who lived there. It would be most unusual for a landlord to do sweeping, washing, and dishes under the usual rental arrangements; and, there is no testimony in this record to support any unusual arrangement between Mrs. Anderson, the renters and Mrs. Johnson. The burden of proving an agency relationship is upon the party asserting it, in this case the plaintiff Nichols. U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Arrington, 255 So.2d 652 (Miss. 1971); Highlands Ins. Co. v. McLaughlin, 387 So.2d 118 (Miss. 1980). It is an elementary principle of law in this State that a mere permissive user of a motor vehicle does not in and of itself create an agency relationship; and, there is no vicarious liability of the automobile owner for the permissive user's negligently caused injuries and damages to a third person. Atwood v. Garcia, 167 Miss. 144, 147 So. 813 (1933); Merchants Co. v. Tracey, 175 Miss. 49, 166 So. 340 (1936). Upon a review of the record with respect to whether an agency relationship existed between Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Johnson with respect to the Lynch Street property and whether Mrs. Johnson was acting as Mrs. Anderson's agent on the day of the accident, we are of the opinion that any such evidence amounts to a mere scintilla, if that much. We are of the further opinion that no issue of agency was sufficiently made for a jury to determine. Therefore, Mrs. Anderson was entitled to a peremptory instruction, and the court should have sustained her motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. REVERSED AND RENDERED AS TO THE LIABILITY OF NANCY ANDERSON. PATTERSON, C.J., SMITH and SUGG, P. JJ., and BROOM, ROY NOBLE LEE, BOWLING, HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, JJ., concur.