Court Opinion

ID: 9716310
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:33:56.864191+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:43.578320
License: Public Domain

*260Bogdanski, J.
(dissenting). I disagree and would reverse the judgment and order a new trial because the plaintiff’s request to charge which would have held the defendant, Timothy Heim, aged seventeen, to the standard of care of an adult should have been granted.
It is true that minors are entitled to be judged by standards commensurate with their age, experience and wisdom when engaged in activities appropriate to their age, experience and wisdom. Hence, when children are playing with toys, operating bicycles, or engaging in other childhood activities, their conduct should be judged by the rule of what is reasonable conduct under the circumstances, among which are the age, experience and wisdom of the minors involved. Grenier v. Glastonbury, 118 Conn. 477, 173 A. 160, and cases cited in the majority opinion. The question pressed here, however, is whether the leniency standard should apply when the minor is involved in activities normally undertaken by adults.
The majority has refrained from deciding the major issue in the belief that any decision concerning the standard of care applicable to a minor who engages in adult activity is for the legislature to make. While the legislature could act and might do so with more precision than a court, the primary responsibility of determining and applying the common law remains with the court. If the common law is to retain its vitality, this court must keep the common law responsive to the times. The relaxed standard of care generally applied to children is a common-law rule developed by the courts in the context of particular cases. In this state the rule was applied as early as the case of Birge v. Gardiner, 19 Conn. 507, 511, and the authority cited by the court for its *261application was not a legislative enactment, but the English case of Lynch v. Nurdin, 113 Eng. Rep. 1041 (1 Q.B. 30). The rule of care for children was thus developed long before such potentially dangerous, adult-oriented instrumentalities as automobiles were used by minors. This court should take the opportunity presented by this case to decide for itself what standard of care should be applied to minors when they engage in such adult activities as the operation of motor vehicles.
In the past decade or so, courts across the country have, in recognition of the dangers posed by motor vehicles, motorboats and airplanes, consistently held that minor operators of such mechanisms are subject to an adult standard of care. Jackson v. McCuiston, 247 Ark. 862, 448 S.W.2d 33; Harrelson v. Whitehead, 236 Ark. 325, 365 S.W.2d 868 (case of first impression); Prichard v. Veterans Cab Co., 63 Cal. 2d 727, 408 P.2d 360 (disapproving lower court decisions to the contrary); Wagner v. Shanks, 56 Del. 555, 194 A.2d 701; Medina v. McAllister, 202 So. 2d 755 (Fla.); Dawson v. Hoffmann, 43 Ill. App. 2d 17, 192 N.E.2d 695; Betzold v. Erickson, 35 Ill. App. 2d 203, 182 N.E.2d 342 (case of first impression) ; Dellwo v. Pearson, 259 Minn. 452, 107 N.W.2d 859; Wilson v. Shumate, 296 S.W.2d 72 (Mo.); Daniels v. Evans, 107 N.H. 407, 224 A.2d 63 (overruling Charbonneau v. MacRury, 84 N.H. 501, 153 A. 457); Karr v. McNeil, 92 Ohio App. 458, 110 N.E.2d 714; Neilsen v. Brown, 232 Ore. 426, 451, 374 P.2d 896 (“innovation on the law of Oregon”). The rule is also recognized in Restatement (Second), 2 Torts § 283 A, comment c, in 2 Harper & James, Torts § 16.8, p. 926, and in Prosser, Torts (4th Ed.) % 32, pp. 156-57; see note, 97 A.L.R.2d 872.
*262The reason underlying the rule is that it would be impracticable, in view of today’s activities involving participation by youth, to allow adolescents to drive cars or operate other motor-powered vehicles with less than a mature regard for the safety of others. Motor vehicles can deal harm of catastrophic dimensions. It would be unfair to the public to let a minor, in operating such a vehicle, observe any standard of care less strict than that required of other operators. Dellwo v. Pearson, supra, and other eases cited. While someone who sees children at play can tailor his conduct accordingly, the risks stemming from careless operation of a motor vehicle are too great to require others either to anticipate youthful imprudence or to bear the heavy burden of compensating for such imprudence.
In addition to the foregoing policy reasons, there are existing statutes which indicate a legislative intent to hold all motor vehicle operators of at least sixteen years of age to an adult standard of care. Section 14-36 (a) of the General Statutes provides that a minor who is sixteen years of age or more can apply for a license to operate a motor vehicle, and § 14-36 (b), which provides for the testing of all applicants, makes no distinction between adults and minors. As all applicants must meet the same standards of competence and ability before obtaining a license, the legislature must have intended that all licensed drivers be held to the same standard of care. In this respect, our laws do not differ significantly from those of other states whose courts have concluded that where statutes make no specific exceptions for minor drivers, the statutes require an adult standard of care. See, e.g., Harrelson v. Whitehead, supra; Wagner v. Shanks, supra; Medina v. *263McAllister, supra; Betzold v. Erickson, supra; Wilson v. Shumate, supra. Moreover, the conclusion that minor drivers at least sixteen years old should be held to an adult standard is reinforced by the fact that § 52-217 of the General Statutes, set forth in the majority opinion, makes an exception to the standard of care in the area of statutory negligence only for minors under sixteen years of age. Presumably, then, the public policy of this state requires all persons aged sixteen and over to operate motor vehicles in accordance with the same standard of care.
The considerations which require a minor to adhere to an adult standard when driving a motor vehicle are also present when a minor flies an airplane, operates a motorboat, or while acting in an adult capacity conducts any other activity which would be dangerous to others unless done with prudent care. This is recognized in Eestatement (Second), 2 Torts § 283 A, comment c, which states that a minor is to be held to an adult standard whenever he engages in “an activity which is normally undertaken only by adults, and for which adult qualifications are required.”
To hold a minor to an adult standard, it is not necessary that he be on public property, for the extent of harm to others is not lessened by the circumstance of location. In Jackson v. McCuiston, 247 Ark. 862, 448 S.W.2d 33, a minor, fourteen years of age, who was operating a tractor-propelled stalk cutter on his father’s farm was held to an adult standard of care. Key considerations were that he was doing an adult’s job, that the job was dangerous, that he had been trained by his father to do the job *264and that he had done it many times before. The Jackson case thus closely and persuasively resembles the facts of the present case.
I conclude that to apply a more lenient standard to minors when they engage in such adult and potentially dangerous activities as the operation of an automobile or other motor-powered vehicles is unrealistic, contrary to legislative policy and inimical to public safety. In this ease, the nature of the activity engaged in required the operation of a large milk tank truck, the use of a pickup truck and the use of pumping equipment to pump water from the lake into the tank truck. This activity, involving the use of such vehicles and equipment, was clearly “an activity which is normally undertaken only by adults, and for which adult qualifications are required.” I conclude, therefore, that an adult standard of care was required of the defendant, Timothy Heim.