Court Opinion

ID: 9738025
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:40:55.510044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:03.287475
License: Public Domain

REYNOLDSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding in division III. The evidence was wholly inadequate, in my view, to generate a jury issue relative to plaintiff’s skiing apparel. It was clothing customarily worn by persons exposed to water in cooler weather.
Defendant as owner (and now held to be operator) of the motor boat had no hesitation in towing plaintiff, so clothed, nor did defendant warn or caution plaintiff in any way. Apparently he did not consider the rubber garment inappropriate until some time after the event. His belated reasoning now is the equivalent of telling someone given a “hot-foot” that had he been barefooted, he would have felt the heat in time to avoid the burn; or contending a farm employee was negligent on a cold winter day in wearing heavy, insulated coveralls which prevented him from feeling and avoiding the tractor’s exposed power takeoff shaft before it gripped his clothing and injured him.
If defendant was not negligent in causing plaintiff to become entangled in the rope, plaintiff’s attire was immaterial. If defendant was negligent, I find no evidence in this record which would justify a finding plaintiff should have anticipated that negligence in selecting his skiing equipment. Ordinarily, ■ .one may presume exercise of due care by others. Jorgensen v. Horton, 206 N.W.2d 100, 105 (Iowa 1973); Conrad v. Board of Supervisors of Lee County, 199 N.W.2d 139, 144 (Iowa 1972).
The standard of conduct which ordinarily applies in negligence cases is the care “of a reasonable man under like circumstances.” Restatement (Second) of Torts § 283, quoted in Kastler v. Iowa Methodist Hospital, 193 N.W.2d 98, 101 (Iowa 1971). Taking at face value defendant’s testimony that although he knew plaintiff’s wet suit was inappropriate and diminished plaintiff’s sensory perception he nonetheless towed him without complaint, defendant was under obligation to exercise additional care to compensate for plaintiff’s handicap. See generally 2 Harper and James, The Law of Torts § 16.12, p. 941; Prosser, Law of Torts § 34, pp. 180-81 (4th Ed. 1971).
Submitting plaintiff’s contributory negligence to the jury on this issue was error.
I would reverse and remand for new trial.