Court Opinion

ID: 9566775
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:43:00.456358+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:39:50.563007
License: Public Domain

CURTIS, J.
Dissenting.—I have not joined in the foregoing opinion for the reason that, as I view the case, the opinion fails to give adequate consideration to the one question upon which the case was tried and upon which the appeal was based. That question, as expressly stated by each of the parties, is as follows: “Where a father and a minor son are co-owners of an automobile, operated by the father in his own right as co-owner and not upon the business of the son, the son not being present in the automobile, is the son liable for the negligence of the father?” This question was elaborately argued by each of the parties, and a line of authorities was cited in support of their respective contentions. Yet this court by the foregoing opinion has indirectly decided this very question without the citation of any authority, and with no discussion of the authorities cited in the briefs of the respective parties.
I say that this court has indirectly decided this question, and in support of this assertion I refer to the following statement in the foregoing opinion: “In the absence of other evidence upon the issue, an inference normally would arise, upon proof of co-ownership and use of personal property by one co-owner, that such usage was lawful and with the consent of the absent co-owner.” Neither party to this action contends that there was any evidence in the record to rebut this inference. On the other hand, they have each in their statement of the question before us set forth a complete statement of the facts upon which they rely, and this statement of facts contains nothing which would rebut the inference that the automobile was being driven by one co-owner with the consent of the other. The opinion reverses the judgment and sends the case back for a new trial. Upon such a trial the statement from the opinion just quoted will become the law of the case and will be decisive of the rights of the parties *138unless the defendants are able to show a different state of facts than that which both the plaintiffs and defendants now agree is before the court in the present action.
This was the precise question argued by each of the parties before the District Court of Appeal and decided by that court. It was the precise and only question before us when we granted a hearing after the decision of the District Court of Appeal, and it is the only question raised by the parties in their respective briefs. The failure of the trial court to make a finding as to whether the father was operating the automobile at the time of the accident with the consent of his son was not raised in any manner by either of the parties, and consequently has not been either argued or briefed by either of them. For these reasons I renew my assertion that the present opinion is entirely inadequate to dispose of the issues before us.
I am further unable to agree with the statement in the foregoing opinion that “Indeed, the creation of the co-ownership itself may not have been by mutual consent. It could arise by operation of law, as by vesting of title by descent.” This possibly might have been a defense to the action. It could only have been raised by the defendants. Not only have the defendants not made this defense, but they expressly state in their brief that the purchase price of the automobile was paid for by both the father and the son. This admission would preclude any theory that the automobile was acquired by the co-owners except by mutual consent.