Court Opinion

ID: 9683540
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:30:55.465352+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:48.609110
License: Public Domain

HANSON, J.,
(dissenting.) I am unable to agree.
Plaintiff is entitled to have the facts reviewed in the light most favorable to her and to have the benefit of all the fair and reasonable inferences arising therefrom. So viewed she should not be considered and treated as an adult with the freedom of choice implicit in that status. She was a minor and attended the Plain View Academy at Redfield as a tuition-paying student. As such she was under the constant and continuing care, control, and supervision of the school. It stood in loco parentis to her.
Plaintiff was injured while on a fund raising trip for the academy. During the entire trip she rode in a car furnished by the school which also furnished or paid her expenses. This money raising group of girls was in the care, custody and control of the defendant Dean of Women at all times. At the outset of the trip it can hardly be questioned that plaintiff was a passenger, rather than a guest, in the school car. "In general, when the relationship of host and guest commences and terminates depends upon the nature and extent of the gratuitous undertaking, including any act necessarily incidental to the accomplishment of the gratuitous undertaking, in order to carry out its prearranged purpose. The relationship of host and guest is determined as of the time of the beginning of the transportation; if at that time a rider is a guest within the meaning of the guest statute, his status ordinarily remains unchanged throughout the journey." 8 Am.Jur.2d, Automobiles and Highway Traffic, § 476, p. 41. In my opinion this rule applies here. The trip should be viewed as a whole and. plaintiff's status as a passenger never changed. As a minor student under the control of the Dean of Women she did not have any freedom of choice in the matter.
The group of girls arrived in the small town of Batesland Friday evening. They attended Sabbath services on Saturday morning. In the afternoon they participated in a church meeting at which plaintiff delivered a talk "on the advantages of a Christian education." Dinner was served by the church in the evening. However, the girls had not concluded their mission. The fund *609raising banquet was to be held at the Batesland Church the following Sunday evening. The girls were naturally expected to attend this climatic function which was the whole object of their presence in the southwestern section of the state. In the meantime the girls had to occupy their time in some manner. It is a fair inference that the defendant Dean of Women agreed to reward the girls by taking them to Hot Springs to swim in the Evans Plunge. As a result, the group started to Hot Springs in the school car. The expenses were paid by the school and the girls were in the custody, care, and control of the Dean of Women. This was a reasonable and logical means of occupying the girls' time and keeping them together as a group. It should not be viewed as an isolated and segmented departure from the whole purpose of the trip as it can fairly and reasonably be inferred to be an incidental and integral part thereof. As this court said in the case of Kleinhesselink v. Porterfield, 76 S.D. 577, 83 N.W.2d 191, "Reason impels the conclusion that such sociability as added to the pleasure of their mission was but incidental to its primary purpose."
Under the circumstances the Dean of Women should not be allowed to use the guest statute as a shield against her admitted Eailure to exercise reasonable care for the protection of the minor students under her control. She was neither the owner nor operator of the automobile. Section 320 of the Restatement of Torts pertinently sets forth her obligation to plaintiff and the other school girls as follows: "Duty of Persons Having Custody of Another to Control Conduct of Third Persons. One who is required by law to take or who voluntarily takes the custody of another under circumstances such as to deprive the other of his normal power of self-protection or to subject him to association with persons likely to harm him, is under a duty of exercising reasonable care so to control the conduct of third persons as to prevent them from intentionally harming the other or so conducting themselves as to create an unreasonable risk of harm to him, if the actor (a) knows or has reason to know that he has the ability to control the conduct of the third persons, and (b) knows or should know of the necessity and opportunity for exercising such control." This section applies to teachers or other persons in charge of a public or private school.
*610I would therefore reverse and have the issue of plaintiff's status in the automobile at the time of the accident determined by the jury.