Court Opinion

ID: 9685800
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:04:02.576277+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:10.778036
License: Public Domain

M. J. Kelly, P.J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent on this close and difficult legal issue. I would reverse the trial court’s order of summary judgment because I think plaintiff has adequately stated a claim upon which relief may be granted.
According to 2 Restatement Torts, 2d, §405, p 365:
One who directly or through a third person gives or lends a chattel for another to use, knowing or having reason to know that it is or is likely to be dangerous for the use for which it is given or lent, is subject to the same liability as a supplier of the chattel.
*27Moreover, the law imposes upon every individual "a duty to refrain from conduct of a character likely to injure a person with whom he comes in contact, and to use his property so as not unreasonably to injure others.” 57 Am Jur 2d, Negligence, § 37, p 385. See also Clark v Dalman, 379 Mich 251, 261; 150 NW2d 755 (1967). In Sponkowski v Ingham Co Road Comm, 152 Mich App 123; 393 NW2d 579 (1986), a group of Michigan State University students planned a hayride event at stables located in Mason, Michigan. Four or more privately owned automobiles set out from East Lansing, with one driver leading the way. The leader, who was familiar with the route and who was a named defendant in the action, lost control of his vehicle at a sharp turn and ended up in a ditch. The car behind him also left the road at the same curve and struck a tree which resulted in the decedent’s death. The trial court concluded as a matter of law that defendant owed no duty to the plaintiff’s decedent and thus dismissed plaintiff’s action for failure to state a claim. We reversed, holding that "where a person voluntarily assumes the performance of a duty (i.e., to lead another motor vehicle to an unfamiliar destination), he is required to perform it carefully, not omitting to do what an ordinary prudent person would do in accomplishing the task.”
In this case, plaintiff alleges in his second amended complaint that defendant, an experienced fisherman, advised the decedent that her own waders were inadequate, loaned her oversized waders of his own, and secured them around her waist with a belt. Plaintiff alleges that defendant knew decedent was inexperienced in the outdoors and knew that her use of these waders was dangerous. Plaintiff further alleges that defendant never warned the decedent of the risks associated *28with the use of the waders nor advised her of the need for a life jacket. Although there may be difficulties in proving this case, particularly with regard to the causation element as commented upon by the majority, it is clear to me that plaintiff has sufficiently pled a cause of action in that defendant loaned decedent an item of personal property knowing that decedent’s use of that property under the circumstances loaned was dangerous. In effect, he put on her waders which were a trap if she fell in the water. I conclude that the complaint should have survived defendant’s motion for summary judgment under GCR 1963, 117.2(1), now MCR 2.116(C)(8). I would therefore reverse.