Opinion ID: 2209899
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Heading: Liability of defendant Finnin Rental under Iowa Code section 321.493.

Text: Plaintiffs also assert on their cross-appeal that the district court erred in concluding that defendant Finnin Rental is not liable to plaintiffs under Iowa Code section 321.493. At the time of the accident in January 1993, Iowa Code section 321.493 stated in pertinent part: In all cases where damage is done by any motor vehicle by reason of negligence of the driver, and driven with the consent of the owner, the owner of the motor vehicle shall be liable for such damage. (Emphasis added.) In essence, section 321.493 holds an owner liable for a driver's negligence unless the owner can overcome the presumption that the vehicle was operated with the owner's consent. Under Iowa law, [w]hen ownership of a vehicle is admitted, a presumption is created that the vehicle was operated with the consent of the owner. Van Zwol, 440 N.W.2d at 591. This inference that the vehicle was operated with the owner's consent can be rebutted by proof that there was no actual consent. See id. In situations where the vehicle is driven by someone other than the consent driver, we have stated that the inference of consent: ... may be overcome by the owner's showing that the first permittee was not given express or implied authority to delegate permission for the vehicle's use.... Generally, a factual determination must be made as to whether the initial grant of authority was broad enough to include an implied grant to give the second permittee authority to use the vehicle.... The inference may be overcome and the matter of consent determined as a matter of law when the undisputed and uncontroverted evidence conclusively establishes the facts. Id. (citations omitted). Upon our review, we agree with the district court's conclusions that defendant Finnin Rental presented sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption that it gave consent to Webster's operation of the vehicle and that Finnin Rental therefore has no liability to plaintiffs under Iowa Code section 321.493. Finnin Rental, as owner, did not grant broad, unrestricted consent to Smothers concerning operation of the vehicle. Rather, the terms of the rental agreement expressly prohibit persons under twenty-one years of age from driving the vehicle. This prohibition is obviously a restriction on whom Finnin Rental has given consent to drive the vehicle. We believe that by including this restrictive language in the rental agreement, Finnin Rental intended that only persons at least twenty-one years of age would be authorized to drive the vehicle. While defendant Finnin Rental did not limit consent to operation of the vehicle by persons based on name or identity, it did so by excluding consent to persons in a certain categorypersons under twenty-one. Wilcox and Webster fall within that category. Thus, it cannot be said that Finnin Rental's initial grant of authority was so broad that Finnin Rental impliedly consented to Wilcox's or Webster's operation of the vehicle. Cf. Van Zwol, 440 N.W.2d at 592-93 (owner did not impliedly consent to third-party's operation of vehicle where owner never permitted or expressly consented to third-party-driver's operation of vehicle in the past and also had no contact with the third-party driver on the day of the accident). Finnin Rental thus cannot be liable to plaintiffs under section 321.493. Cf. Marquez v. Enterprise Rent-A-Car, 53 Cal.App.4th 319, 323, 61 Cal. Rptr.2d 557, 559 (Cal.Ct.App.1997) (noting that where renter, when asked, did not request that other drivers be allowed to drive car, rental agency had no reason to expect that operator or anyone other than renter would drive the vehicle; rental company thus did not give implied permission to person other than renter to drive car and thus could not be held liable for driver's negligence); Bieszck v. Avis Rent-A-Car Sys., Inc., 459 Mich. 9, 583 N.W.2d 691, 695-96 (1998) (car rental company not liable for harm caused by twenty-one year old driver who was driving car without rental company's permission; rental agreement stated that car was not to be driven by anyone under the age of twenty-five and thus rental company did not consent to twenty-one year old driver's operation of the car). We thus conclude that the district court properly determined that defendant Webster was not operating the vehicle with the implied consent of defendant Finnin Rental. As a result, Finnin Rental has no liability to plaintiffs under section 321.493. We affirm the judgment of the district court on this issue.