Court Opinion

ID: 9543060
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:41:45.904468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:09:37.966531
License: Public Domain

LATOTJRETTE, J.,
specially concurring.
I concur in the opinion of Mr. Justice Belt because I believe that the reason for the rule of public policy in actions of this nature ceases to exist in so far as the facts in this case are concerned. The public policy doctrine is a wholesome one, in most eases involving torts between a father and his unemancipated son, but in the case at bar, it seems to me that when the drunken father commanded his son to ride with him on the fateful night and refused the son’s request to let him drive the automobile and went careening down the road in the manner indicated, being engaged in an unlawful act and bringing about the son’s untimely death, the harmony and tranquillity of the family unit then and there became emasculated. Cessante ratione legis, cessat et ipsa lex.
*309The courts universally hold that an unemancipated son has a right of action against his father for misappropriation of the son’s property entrusted to the father. To reverse the judgment in this action, in the light of the facts, would be placing “property rights” over human rights. To this doctrine, I can not subscribe.