Court Opinion

ID: 9793437
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:47:34.467006+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:05:00.481006
License: Public Domain

SLOAN, J.,
dissenting.
It is necessary for me to dissent. I cannot reconcile my thinking to the harsh rule adopted by the majority. Although it would be possible to expound on the subject at some length, it would avail no one any benefit. A statement by the court in Bastedo, Admr., v. Frailey, 109 NJL 390, 162 A 621, 87 ALR 587, 589, adequately expresses a basic reason for rejecting the rule adopted by the majority:
“The philosophy underlying the rule laid down in Consolidated Traction Co. v. Hone, supra [59 NJL 275, 35 A 899, 900] is admirably expressed by Chief Justice Beasley: ‘But it is to be remembered that the legal doctrine that bars a party injured by the unintentional misconduct of another by reason of his having himself been, in a measure, the occasion of the resulting damage, is rather an artificial rule of the law than a principle of justice, for its effect generally is to cast the entire loss ensuing from the joint fault upon one of the culpable parties, and oftentimes upon him who is but little to blame. Such a legal regulation has no claim to extension, and to apply it as is now insisted on would be to use it in a novel way.’ * *
Other sound reasons exist. The statute, OES 30.020, gives a cause of action to the personal representative *220of a deceased person for wrongful death if, and only if, “the decedent might have maintained an action had he lived, . . .” It should follow that the personal representative should be subject only to the defenses that would have been available against the deceased.
The next step we will be called upon to decide is when and by what formula non-negligent beneficiaries are to participate in a recovery when one beneficiary is barred by the rule. This court has already stated that such an apportionment is beset with “practical difficulties.” Oviatt v. Camarra, 210 Or 445, 454, 311 P2d 746. It would seem that once we attempt to legislate in this fashion there are other uncertainties, to be encountered. I would not take the first step.
If the wrongful death statute did not limit the amount of recovery I might think otherwise. However, it is unrealistic to say that any member of a family profits from the maximum award allowed. The amount permitted to be recovered for wrongful death, in most, cases, is only nominal.
For these, and other, reasons, I dissent.