Court Opinion

ID: 9628236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:13:38.324849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:01.103685
License: Public Domain

Ott, J.
(dissenting) — I dissent for the following reasons:
*17(1) Whether an insured person, in a particular case, grants a limited or restricted use of his automobile to another can be determined only by the evidence. The only evidence on this subject in the record before us is that of Ronald Kok as follows:
“A. I went out to see if I could possibly use the car or try it out, being I had never driven it. Q. You hadn’t driven the car at all? A. I had not driven the car before this time. Q. How did you get out to her house? A. I drove the Buick I owned then. Q. And did you speak to her about borrowing the car? A. Yes, I did. Q. Did you tell her what you wanted with it, to use it for? A. I told her that I would like to try it out, being I had never driven it, and wondered if it would be possible if I used it to see if I liked it and whether it would be in good shape and so forth. The car had been in one wreck prior to the time I bought it and I was told about that. I wanted to see if it handled all right and if anything was wrong with the frame being sprung, or anything like that, of that nature. Q. Was she agreeable that you try the car out? A. Yes, she was.” (Italics mine.)
As I read this evidence, it was Kok who requested permission to use the automobile for the limited purpose of trying it out to see if it was “in good shape.” The insured granted Kok permission to use her automobile for the limited and restricted use that he requested. The record is explicit that there was no request for an unlimited use, nor was permission for an unlimited use ever granted.
The trial court and the majority of this court find; from the above-quoted testimony, that Ronald Kok requested, and Mrs. Fleenor granted, an unlimited use. Nowhere in the record is there any evidence to support such a finding.
(2) The majority find that Kok was using the automobile because he was being transported in it at the time of the accident. The restricted permission to try out the automobile would normally encompass a delegation of driving privileges to a mechanic or qualified person who could give an opinion of the mechanical fitness of the automobile. Sandra Miller was not such a person. Even though Kok was being transported in.the automobile, he had not only delegated the driving privilege to another, beyond the scope of *18the limited grant, but also had delegated control over the operation of the automobile.
(3) Finally, the majority conclude that Mrs. Fleenor believed, from the time that Kok asked for a limited use of the automobile, that a sale had been effected. This conclusion likewise is not sustained by the record. Mrs. Fleenor parted with her possession of the automobile only because Kok had requested permission to try it out. It was only after he had kept it for two weeks that she believed he had decided to buy it. Her conclusion in this regard is supported by the record because he did buy it, and also paid to have it repaired.
The judgment, in my opinion, should be reversed.
Mallery, Donworth, and Weaver, JJ., concur with Ott, J.