Court Opinion

ID: 9684451
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:57:46.085016+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:01:02.504437
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion

SEILER, Judge.
Although Hodge v. Feiner, 338 Mo. 268, 90 S.W.2d 90, states specifically that the defendant there, being a minor, could not be held in tort on the doctrine of respon-deat superior, the court did not say this was the only way a minor could be vicariously liable in tort. It did not discuss what the situation would have been had the minor been present in the car. It several times stressed the fact the tort was not committed in the minor’s presence. Indeed, at one point, 90 S.W.2d l. c. 91, the court seems to say that since the minor was not present in the car it was incumbent on plaintiff to establish agency but this could not be done against a minor. In its discussion of McKerall v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., (Mo.App.) 257 S.W. *733166, which involved a minor who was present in the car with right of control, the court distinguishes it from Hodge v. Feiner on the ground that the former involved a minor who was present and had the right to direct the driver of the automobile in the manner of its operation, while the latter sought to hold the minor in tort solely on respondeat superior, when the minor was not present.
There are several Missouri cases which charge the person who has the right of control and who is present in the car with the negligence of the driver when they are engaged in something of mutual interest, even though it clearly is not a joint adventure or enterprise in the technical sense at all, involves no element of contract, partnership, profits or losses and, actually, no master-servant or principal-agent relationship in fact. For example, in Smith v. Wells, 326 Mo. 525, 31 S.W.2d 1014, plaintiff and his wife were merely returning home in plaintiffs car after a visit with plaintiff’s mother-in-law. In James v. Berry (Mo.App.) 301 S.W.2d 530, plaintiff and her brother, who was driving her car, were returning to her home after a fishing trip. In Counts v. Thomas (Mo.App.) 63 S.W.2d 416, the parties were on a pleasure trip, the son of the owner riding and a friend driving. If defendant Green had been twenty-one years old, his responsibility for the negligence of Becker would probably not be considered debatable, but under the facts before us, liability should not turn on the happenstance of whether the defendant is just under or just over the age of twenty-one. Defendant was present and clearly had the right of control and he and the driver were jointly engaged in an evening of mutual pleasure — what is commonly referred to as a “double date” and which does not require agency or contract.
Therefore, while I concur with the action of the majority in reversing and remanding this cause and Brocato v. Green et al., Mo., 423 S.W.2d 735, for the purposes stated, I must respectfully dissent from that portion of the opinion which seems to me to hold that liability based upon right to control, when the owner is present in the car, can exist only when the facts and the ages are such as to show the existence of a master-servant or principal-agent relationship between the owner and driver, or a true joint adventure relationship founded on contract.