Court Opinion

ID: 9857796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:01:50.195313+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:46:12.313888
License: Public Domain

SCHULTZ, Justice
(dissenting).
Because I cannot agree with the majority’s reasoning and result in Division I, I respectfully dissent.
My first disagreement concerns instruction five. The majority, while conceding the instruction was faulty in combining assumption of risk (a subjective test) with negligence (an objective standard based on reasonableness), concludes the error was harmless. I, for reasons that will be explained later, believe the erroneous instruction requires a new trial.
More fundamentally, I believe this case reveals inconsistencies lurking in our tort law since our adoption of comparative negligence 1 and requires us to reexamine our *413decision Rosenau. In particular, this case brings us to a juncture where we must either (1) abolish assumption of risk as a complete defense in all actions and treat it as a form of comparative fault that reduces the amount of damages a plaintiff would otherwise be entitled to recover or (2) reinstate subjective assumption of risk as a complete defense to actions based on ordinary negligence.
Finally, if the current status of the assumption of risk doctrine remains unchanged, I disagree with the allowance of punitive damages. As our law now stands, assumption of risk is a complete defense to an action sounding in recklessness, and plaintiff should not be able to collect punitive damages by alleging wanton and reckless misconduct when the underlying cause of action would be barred.
I. Prejudicial error created by erroneous instruction. In the controversial instruction, the court set out a subjective standard in defining the elements of assumption of risk. Specifically, the court instructed the jury that plaintiff was negligent in assuming the risk and his recovery should be reduced by the amount of that negligence if defendant proved that: (1) plaintiff was aware of defendant’s intoxication and the danger to himself; (2) plaintiff had an alternative of subjecting or not subjecting himself to the danger created by defendant’s intoxication; (3) plaintiff chose either expressly or impliedly to accept the risk; and (4) the intoxication was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s harm. Although defendant’s objection to the instruction was not a model of clarity, she did sufficiently point out that the instruction should have been based on a reasonable person standard. The majority admits the validity of defendant’s objections but nevertheless holds that the erroneous instruction was harmless since the jury found for defendant on the tougher subjective standard by assessing plaintiff five percent negligence. I disagree.
Plaintiff’s negligence should have been measured by whether a reasonable person would have placed himself in the automobile under the conditions as they then existed. Cf. Rosenau v. City of Estherville, 199 N.W.2d 125, 133 (Iowa 1972) (assumption of risk in a secondary sense is just another method of saying plaintiff was con-tributorily negligent). Obviously, this is a more easily met standard of proof since the jury need not find actual knowledge or conscious appreciation of the risk by plaintiff. Confronted with a more difficult standard of proof in order to find the plaintiff negligent, the jury could have compromised by finding for defendant but assessing plaintiff with a much lower percentage of fault. Recognition that juries do compromise is evidenced by our insistence in criminal cases that lesser and included offenses be submitted to the jury for consideration along with the principal charge. Here, the simpler objective standard would have reduced the possibilities and need for compromise and may well have resulted in higher percentage of negligence being assessed to the plaintiff. Thus, I would hold the instruction prejudicial and grant a new trial.
II. Current status of implied assumption of risk. At trial, defendant proposed and requested instruction on the subjective standard of assumption of risk (ultimately given by the court but only as a means of assessing plaintiff’s contributory negligence) which would have completely barred recovery by the plaintiff. On appeal, defendant takes a somewhat different tack and although arguing the court erred in not giving the instruction, now seemingly claims the assumption of risk doctrine would operate only to bar punitive damages. Nevertheless, I believe defendant has sufficiently preserved error on this issue and at the same time, albeit inadvertently, pointed out the inconsistencies lurking in our tort law since the advent of comparative negligence. Thus, I believe we must squarely face the issue of what effect our adoption of comparative negligence should have on our decision in Rose-nau.
In Rosenau v. City of Estherville, 199 N.W.2d 125, 133 (Iowa 1972), we abolished assumption of risk as a separate defense in *414all actions in which contributory negligence was a defense. This decision was carefully limited to the secondary sense of the doctrine which we felt overlapped with the doctrine of contributory negligence and did not affect causes of action in which contributory negligence was not a defense. Id. at 131-33.
After Rosenau, assumption of risk was available as a complete defense in strict products liability actions. See e.g., Hughes v. Magic Chef, Inc., 288 N.W.2d 542, 548 (Iowa 1980); Aller v. Rodgers Machine Manufacturing Co., Inc., 268 N.W.2d 830, 838-39 (Iowa 1978); Hawkeye Security Insurance Co. v. Ford Motor Co., 199 N.W.2d 373, 381 (Iowa 1972). It could also be used to defeat recovery in other strict liability actions. See e.g., Franken v. City of Sioux Center, 272 N.W.2d 422, 425 (Iowa 1979) (in a strict liability action based on duties arising from the possession of a wild animal, assumption of risk is a defense to count of strict liability although not available as a separate defense on negligence count if contributory negligence available as a defense); Rippel v. J.H.M. of Waterloo, Inc., 328 N.W.2d 499, 500-01 (Iowa 1983) (allowing assumption of risk, [using same subjective standard employed by the trial court in this case], to defeat a dram shop action by a passenger knowingly and voluntarily riding with an intoxicated driver). Finally, assumption of risk was still available as a defense for more egregious conduct such as recklessness or intoxication in guest-passenger cases. Six v. Freshour, 231 N.W.2d 588, 591 (Iowa 1975); Dutcher v. Lewis, 221 N.W.2d 755, 762 (Iowa 1974).
In addition to not affecting secondary assumption of risk in certain cases, “Rose-nau did not affect the doctrine in its primary meaning: ‘an alternative expression for the proposition that defendant was not negligent, i.e., either owed no duty or did not breach a duty owed.’ ” Parsons v. National Dairy Cattle Congress, 277 N.W.2d 620, 622 (Iowa 1979) citing Rosenau v. City of Estherville, 199 N.W.2d 125, 131 (Iowa 1972). In Parsons, a patron of a hockey game sued the rink owner for negligence when she was struck by a flying puck while walking in an unprotected aisle. We overturned the ruling of summary judgment for defendant, since a genuine issue of fact existed concerning what duty was owed by the premises’ owner in these circumstances. See also Dudley v. William Penn College, 219 N.W.2d 484 (Iowa 1974) (dismissal of action proper where baseball player struck by ball while sitting on player’s bench accepted those hazards and thus no duty owed by college in these circumstances).
Retention of assumption of risk in its secondary sense in those cases in' which contributory defense was not available as defense was not troubling as long as both defenses operated to completely bar recovery. Indeed, the primary rationale underlying our decision in Rosenau was to prohibit a defendant from using a double-barreled defense to defeat recovery when a single-barreled one was more than adequate for the job. 199 N.W.2d at 132-33.
With the advent of comparative negligence, plaintiff’s contributory negligence no longer operates as a complete bar to recovery but instead mitigates the amount of damages a claimant is allowed to recover. Goetzman v. Wichern, 327 N.W.2d 742, 754 (Iowa 1982). Thus, we are left with the anomalous situation where assumption of risk can bar recovery for egregious conduct such as recklessness or wantonness but does not bar recovery for ordinary negligence. If a bullet can kill an elephant, should it not also be fatal to a hare. I realize that guest-passenger cases based on recklessness or intoxication were rendered nugatory by our decision in Bierkamp v. Rogers, 293 N.W.2d 577, 585 (Iowa 1980), where we struck down the guest law on state constitutional grounds. Nevertheless, I believe these cases still stand for the proposition that actions based on recklessness or more culpable conduct are subject to the defense of assumption of risk. See also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 503 (1965). Moreover, I find it somewhat ineongruent that we allowed assumption of risk to be a defense in guest *415cases (even after Rosenau) when a passenger was injured by an intoxicated driver; but now since these same cases can be brought on a negligence theory, we disallow the defense even though the conduct of the driver by being intoxicated and that of the plaintiff by knowingly and voluntarily assuming the risk are not in any way qualitatively different than in the guest statute cases.
And if that incongruity is not enough, the inconsistencies that may arise in dram shop type cases are even more disturbing. In Lewis v. State, 256 N.W.2d 181, 192 (Iowa 1977), we held that individuals who were injured by a drinking driver stated a common law negligence claim against a state liquor employee for illegally selling liquor to a minor. A dram shop action was not pled in that case because there was doubt whether, as a strict liability statute, it could be enforced against the State under Iowa’s Tort Claims Act. Id. If that prediction in Lewis is valid, then a situation could arise where a state liquor store employee or the State could be sued on negligence theory by a passenger who knowingly and voluntarily assumed the perils of riding with an intoxicated driver. Although the passenger’s negligence in riding with an intoxicated driver would reduce damages, the State could not assert assumption of risk to completely bar recovery. Conversely, a dram shop licensee could subsequently sell liquor to the same intoxicated individual and assert assumption of risk to totally defeat recovery by the same passenger. Again, I can see no qualitative or quantitative differences in these two cases justifying these different results other than the fortuitous circumstance that one action happen to sound in negligence while the other was based on strict liability.
As these examples amply demonstrate, our adoption of comparative negligence requires us to reexamine the doctrine of assumption of risk. The inconsistencies now apparent in our tort law can be resolved in one of two ways. We can adopt a system of comparative fault irrespective of the type of action and apportion damages not only in cases of contributory negligence but also when a defense is based on assumption of risk. I would have no problem in taking this course of action and, in fact, think that at this juncture it represents a reasonable solution to the inconsistencies lurking in our tort law since the adoption of comparative negligence. Under this approach, assumption of risk would never be a complete defense to strict liability actions or those based on reckless or wanton or willful misconduct but would merely operate to reduce the amount of damages plaintiff can recover. This is the course that has been suggested by some commentators and adopted by at least one court. See e.g., Kionka, Implied Assumption of Risk: Does it Survive Comparative Fault, 3 So. 111.U.L.J. 371 (1982); Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 13 Cal.3d 804, 119 Cal.Rptr. 858, 532 P.2d 1226 (1975). Other states that have adopted comparative negligence either by statute or judicial edict have split on the retention of assumption of risk and its effect have split on the retention of assumption of risk and its effect on comparative negligence. See generally, V. Schwartz, Comparative Negligence §§ 9.3 and 9.4 (1974, Supp.1981), Annot., 16 A.L.R. 4th 700 (1982).
Barring this course of action, I believe for the sake of consistency we must reinstate assumption of risk as a complete bar to recovery in negligence actions. Under this approach, I would only apply comparative negligence principles to reduce recovery when a defendant claims that a plaintiff in the exercise of reasonable care should have known of the danger and acted unreasonably in disregarding his own safety by placing himself in a dangerous situation. On the other hand, if a defendant is able to meet the elements of the subjective assumption of risk doctrine as the defendant did in this case, then recovery would be barred. I would have no qualms in denying recovery if the jury finds — under a purely subjective test — that plaintiff knowingly and voluntarily confronted an apparent risk because J believe in these situations the bar to recovery has less to do *416with plaintiffs fault than with his agreement by conduct to take the risk of the consequences that he suffered. As one commentator has suggested, when “[vjiewed from this perspective, it (assumption of risk) is a close cousin of the consent defense to intentional torts.” V. Schwartz, Comparative Negligence, § 9.5 at 173 (1974).
Whatever course of action is ultimately chosen, I cannot join the majority opinion because I believe it fails to recognize and resolve irreconcilable differences in our tort law as it presently stands.
III. Punitive damages. Given the current status of the assumption of risk doctrine, I also disagree with the allowance of punitive damages. The trial court instructed the jury that they could not allow punitive damages unless the driver's conduct was wanton, reckless, or grossly negligent. Defendant argues that punitive damages should not be allowed when plaintiff consents to the conduct which gives rise to the cause of action. She points out that jury specifically found plaintiff assumed the risk and he should be barred from recovering punitive damages. I agree.
Conduct supporting an award of punitive damages has traditionally been equated with wanton and willful misconduct amounting to recklessness. See e.g., Meyer v. Nottger, 241 N.W.2d 911, 922 (Iowa 1976); Sebastion v. Wood, 246 Iowa 94, 99, 66 N.W.2d 841, 844 (1954). See also characterization of conduct justifying an award of punitive damages by Professor Ellis in his article Punitive Damages in Iowa Law: A Critical Assessment, 66 Ia.L.Rev. 1005, 1032-36 (1981). This conduct is something more than ordinary negligence.
As pointed out earlier, assumption of risk is a defense to recklessness. The conduct in this case allowing an award of punitive damages also amounts to recklessness. Since an underlying claim based on reck-lessnéss would be barred by assumption of risk, a jury should not be allowed to award punitive damages based on reckless misconduct when it also finds0 the injured party assumed the risk. Cf. Harvey v. Leonard, 268 N.W.2d 504, 516 (Iowa 1978) (punitive damages may not be awarded unless compensatory damages are appropriate).
Since my only quarrel with the majority concerns division I of the opinion, I dissent only from that division. Even barring a change in the present status of the law, I believe the erroneous instruction was prejudicial. Thus, I would reverse and remand for a new trial.
WOLLE, J., joins this dissent.

. Goetzman v. Wichern, 327 N.W.2d 742 (Iowa 1982).