Court Opinion

ID: 9849313
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:38:18.830332+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:16.774110
License: Public Domain

*558MARTIN, Judge.
Defendant and third-party plaintiff Mowett Sales Company, Inc. asserts on appeal that the trial court incorrectly relied upon the doctrine of parent-child immunity in dismissing the third-party complaint. Since, under present North Carolina law, parental immunity would have barred a personal injury action brought by the minor plaintiff directly against her father, it also bars this action by a third party to recover contribution from the father for inu juries to his minor child. We affirm the order dismissing the third-party action.
It is the general rule in North Carolina that unemancipated minors may not maintain an action against their parents to recover damages for an unintentional tort. Skinner v. Whitley, 281 N.C. 476, 189 S.E. 2d 230 (1972); Gillikin v. Burbage, 263 N.C. 317, 139 S.E. 2d 753 (1965); Small v. Morrison, 185 N.C. 577, 118 S.E. 12 (1923). Since the parent cannot be held liable in a direct action against him by the injured child, a third-party may not maintain an action against the parent, based on allegations of joint negligence, to recover contribution for damages awarded to the minor. Watson v. Nichols, 270 N.C. 733, 155 S.E. 2d 154 (1967).
By the enactment of G.S. 1-539.21, the legislature created a limited exception to the common law doctrine of parent-child immunity in North Carolina. G.S. 1-539.21 provides:
The relationship of parent and child shall not bar the right of action by a minor child against a parent for personal injury or property damage arising out of the operation of a motor vehicle owned or operated by such parent.
(Emphasis added.) This statutory exception applies solely to tort actions arising out of the operation of motor vehicles. We do not believe that a riding lawnmower is a “motor vehicle” within the meaning of G.S. 1-539.21 and therefore hold that the limited statutory exception created thereby does not apply to this case.
Mowett concedes the North Carolina rule to be as stated above but, citing the trend in other jurisdictions toward abrogation of the doctrine of parent-child immunity, urges that we judicially expand the limited statutory exception to the doctrine by providing unemancipated minors with a right to maintain an action for personal injury against their parents in all cases where *559the injury does not arise from a negligent act involving the exercise of parental authority or discretion. Our responsibility, however, is to follow the decisions of the Supreme Court of North Carolina; those decisions continue to recognize the common law doctrine of parental immunity except as abrogated by G.S. 1-539.21. See e.g., Carver v. Carver, 310 N.C. 669, 314 S.E. 2d 739 (1984); Gillikin v. Burbage, supra. Moreover, as stated by Justice Huskins in Skinner v. Whitley, supra, in response to a similar argument:
If the immunity rule in ordinary negligence cases is no longer suited to the times, as some decisions suggest, we think innovations upon the established law in this field should be accomplished prospectively by legislation rather than retroactively by judicial decree. Such changes may be accomplished more appropriately by legislation defining the areas of non-immunity and imposing such safeguards as may be deemed proper. Certainly that course is much preferred over judicial piecemeal changes in a case-by-case approach.
Id. at 484, 189 S.E. 2d at 235.
Affirmed.
Judge WEBB concurs.
Judge Becton dissents.