Court Opinion

ID: 9547241
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:44:10.029264+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:31.235011
License: Public Domain

Fromme, J.,
dissenting.
Although I am in agreement with the
court on the venue question and on the construction and meaning of the exclusionary clause I cannot agree that counsel for the insurance company by admissions deprived the company of the right to go to trial on the issue of who was piloting the plane when it crashed.
The following written statement of Dr. Greenwood must be accepted as true:
“After the engine started Darrell came around and asked if I wanted to fly back, I said ‘no, I flew over, you fly back and I’ll look for deer.’ I then got out of the front seat and into the rear seat. Darrell Dean Major then got into the front seat and flew the plane on the takeoff and I remember his flying over to the Cimarron River and flying along the river towards Ulysses, Kansas, while I looked for deer.
“I have no recollection of anything further concerning the flight and my next recollection is of being in a hospital at Wichita, Kansas.”
Thus we have the statement of one of the occupants that Major was to fly the plane on the return trip and did so on takeoff. In addition we have the statement that he was flying along the river toward Ulysses, Kansas, when the memory of Dr. Greenwood fails him. I am of the opinion that the foregoing evidence is sufficient from which the trier of fact may find a reasonable inference that Major was piloting the plane when it crashed.
The argument and admission of counsel for the insurance company is taken out of context and should not be taken as a concession that the circumstantial evidence was wholly insufficient to raise a reasonable inference that Major was piloting the plane when it crashed. What counsel was saying is that Major was dead and Dr. Greenwood’s memory of events did not extend to the instant of the crash, therefore no witness could testify that he saw Major piloting the plane when it hit the ground.
*950I do not believe such testimony is necessary in order to malee a submissible case. Testimony that Major and Greenwood talked it over and decided that Major should pilot the plane on the return trip plus the fact that Greenwood was in the plane and saw Major piloting on takeoff and later as they approached the crash point is sufficient to have the issue go to the jury.
The cases of In re Estate of Hayden, 174 Kan. 140, 254 P. 2d 813, 36 A. L. R. 2d 1278, and In re Estate of Rivers, 175 Kan. 809, 267 P. 2d 506, do not, in my opinion, compel the result reached by the majority. In Hayden and Rivers the actions were based upon the negligent operation of the airplanes. In such cases it was necessary to establish not only negligence on the part of the pilot but also to establish which of two men were piloting. In both cases all persons in the planes were killed and there was no testimony as to who might have been piloting the plane prior to the accident. The speculation which prevented submissible cases involved not only who was piloting but also what acts of negligence were the proximate cause of the crashes.
I would reverse the case with instructions to 'transfer venue to Grant County where the trier of fact should determine the question of whether Major was piloting the plane when it crashed.
Fontron and Kaul, J. J., join in the foregoing dissent.