Court Opinion

ID: 9731649
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:53:28.131089+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:09:28.912733
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing.
JOHNSON, Judge.
The plaintiff and appellant has filed a petition for rehearing in which he diplomat*354ically suggests three considerations upon which the appellant should be entitled to a rehearing. In that connection he suggests that this court has not considered certain portions of the evidence in the record in its determination that under the facts if any wilful misconduct was involved, the plaintiff is equally guilty with the defendant. In his attempt to establish that, he points to testimony of the plaintiff relating to an incident when the parties stopped for breakfast at what the plaintiff claims was a truck stop on the morning of the accident, and which evidence he claims contradicts evidence given by the defendant to the effect that the defendant suggested a two hour rest at a garage where parking space was available on the morning of the accident, but the plaintiff did not want to stop for rest and the journey was continued. If, as assumed, the evidence of the plaintiff refers to the same incident as that testified to by the defendant, the evidence is in conflict as to that incident. While it appears that the evidence of the parties in this connection may refer to the same incident, that is not absolutely certain. But regardless of whether or not the plaintiff and the defendant were testifying to the same incident, we cannot escape the fact that when all of the evidence in the record is considered and the inferences arising therefrom, it is abundantly clear that the long, strenuous journey undertaken by the parties across Montana and North Dakota without a stop for rest was the result of the request and the persuasion of the plaintiff. It was the plaintiff who was in a hurry and it is apparent that he negatived any suggestions that the parties stop for any length of time. If the defendant had been left to his own judgment upon the matter, it is apparent that he would have proceeded on his journey in a more leisurely manner.
The plaintiff and appellant, as a second proposition, states that this court has now engrafted upon the law of negligence in this state a new concept which he calls “contributory willful misconduct.” We did not decide that the acts of the defendant amounted to willful misconduct. The determination of whether misconduct is willful is ordinarily a jury question. The jury found for the defendant. We do not know the basis upon which the jury arrived at its verdict. All we indicated in our opinion was that whatever the conduct of the defendant resulting in the accident, the plaintiff was as much, if not more to blame, for the conduct as the defendant, and under the evidence and circumstances of this case, the plaintiff was not in a position to recover.
The appellant contends that this court has exceeded its limitations in determining a disputed question of fact. The evidence clearly discloses that the conduct of the plaintiff throughout the trip with the defendant was one of anxiety to proceed as rapidly as possible. We determined that under the circumstances disclosed, as a matter of law, where the inducing cause of this hurried journey was that of the plaintiff, he was not entitled to recover.
We adhere to our decision. The petition for rehearing is denied.
GRIMSON, C. J., and SATHRE, MORRIS and BURKE, JJ., concur.