Court Opinion

ID: 9728451
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:08:13.158696+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:48.709697
License: Public Domain

*497Krivosha, C. J.,
concurring in part, and in part dissenting.
I wholeheartedly concur with the majority’s opinion insofar as it goes. I wish, however, to make comment with regard to the appellants’ first assignment of error, to wit, that the guest statute, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-6,191 (Reissue 1978), is unconstitutional. While the majority has correctly noted that there are, as yet, insufficient votes on this court to reconsider our decision in Botsch v. Reisdorff, 193 Neb. 165, 226 N.W.2d 121 (1975), I would not wish to leave the impression that that holding is so firmly supported that it should not continue to be considered. I, for one, would join with the as yet less than constitutional majority who would reconsider our decision in the Botsch case and would hold that our guest statute is unconstitutional on the basis of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. It seems clear to me that our guest statute does, indeed, deny to certain persons within our jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.
The history of the guest statute makes it clear that its enactment was intended to accomplish two specific purposes: (1) The protection of host drivers from suits by those to whom the host had extended a courtesy, and (2) The elimination of collusive lawsuits. While those concerns may have been real in the 1930’s when guest statutes were adopted by various state legislatures (though I would disagree), the advent of automobile insurance has eliminated the necessity to protect those interests in that manner.
Guest statutes have, in recent years, come under attack from a number of areas, including no lesser an authority than the distinguished Professor Prosser. See, W. Prosser, Law of Torts 186 (4th ed. 1971); 35 ATLA L. J. 46 (1974); Morris, Gross Negligence in Michigan — How Gross Is It? 16 Wayne L. Rev. 457 (1970); Lascher, Hard Laws Make Bad *498Cases — Lots of Them (The California Guest Statute), 9 Santa Clara Law. 1 (1968); Gibson, Guest Passenger Discrimination, 6 Alberta L. Rev. 211 (1968); Note, The Case Against the Guest Statute, 7 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 321 (1966); Weinstein, Should We Kill the Guest Passenger Act? 33 Det. Law. 185 (1965); Allen, Why Do Courts Coddle Automobile Indemnity Companies? 61 Am. L. Rev. 77 (1927); Clark v. Clark, 107 N.H. 351, 222 A.2d 205 (1966); Stevens v. Stevens, 355 Mich. 363, 94 N.W.2d 858 (1959); Hewlett v. Schadel, 68 F.2d 502 ( 4th Cir. 1934). As a result of such questioning and reexamination, no fewer than 10 states have, in recent years, held their guest statutes unconstitutional. See, Ramey v. Ramey, _ S.C. _, 258 S.E.2d 883 (1979), cert. denied, 100 S. Ct. 1028 (1980); Nehring v. Russell, 582 P.2d 67 (Wyo. 1978); Manistee Bank v. McGowan, 394 Mich. 655, 232 N.W.2d 636 (1975); Primes v. Tyler, 43 Ohio St. 2d 195, 331 N.E.2d 723 (1975); Laakonen v. District Court, 91 Nev. 506, 538 P.2d 574 (1975); McGeehan v. Bunch, 88 N.M. 308, 540 P.2d 238 (1975); Thompson v. Hagan, 96 Idaho 19, 523 P.2d 1365 (1974); Henry v. Bauder, 213 Kan. 751, 518 P.2d 362 (1974); Johnson v. Hassett, 217 N.W.2d 771 (N.D. 1974); Brown v. Merlo, 8 Cal. 3d 855, 506 P.2d 212, 106 Cal. Rptr. 388 (1973).
It is difficult, if not impossible, to understand how one can rationally argue that, if a host driver has two passengers in his car, one of whom is his neighbor on the left who normally contributes $3 a week toward the gas, and one of whom is his neighbor on the right who only occasionally rides with him and, therefore, makes no payment, the neighbor on the left may sue for injuries arising out of ordinary negligence while the neighbor on the right may only recover for gross negligence. That irrational distinction is further blurred when one recognizes that all of these artificial barriers can be eliminated if one simply remembers to hand the driver a dollar before getting *499into the car. Neither the alleged protection of the host driver nor the avoidance of allegedly collusive suits can justify the distinction made in upholding the constitutionality of guest statutes.
These are the very same arguments which, for years, were advanced to support the validity of a number of restrictions on the right of recovery by an injured party, including interspousal immunity. This court, however, had little difficulty rejecting these arguments in the case of interspousal immunity. See Imig v. March, 203 Neb. 537, 279 N.W.2d 382 (1979).
While courts should be reluctant to overturn acts of the Legislature, where the requirements of the Constitution are violated, we must exercise our duty. As we said in Imig, supra at 543, 279 N.W.2d at 386: “The dozen or so state supreme courts that have recently abrogated the immunity doctrine have recognized that an unjust and irrational principle cannot be allowed to persist on the hollow ground that changing an antiquated rule is a job for the legislature.” This is particularly true when the antiquated restriction violates one’s constitutional right to the equal protection of the law guaranteed under the 14th Amendment.
As noted in Brown v. Merlo, supra, “[T]he wholesale elimination of all guests’ causes of action for negligence does not treat similarly situated persons equally, but instead improperly discriminates against guests on the basis of a factor which bears no significant relation to actual collision.” Id. at 860, 506 P.2d at 215, 106 Cal. Rptr. at 391. Little purpose would be served at this time in making a detailed analysis of why the Nebraska guest statute is unconstitutional and I shall, therefore, reserve that for another day. For now, I would simply say that I would join with those other states which have recognized the unfairness of guest statutes and declare it invalid.
I am authorized to state that Judges McCown and White join in this dissent.