Court Opinion

ID: 9719639
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:57:38.230038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:08.585617
License: Public Domain

LARSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I believe that the arbitrary limitation of five percent imposed by Iowa Code section 321.445(4)(b)(2) on the mitigation of damages that may be charged for failure to wear a seat belt unconstitutionally infringes on a defendant’s right to a trial on that issue.
The law has always required that a person act responsibly with respect to his or her own safety, and the party failing to do so ordinarily suffers the monetary consequences. It should make no difference whether the negligence is based on a failure to follow traditional standards of due care, such as observing rules of the road, or in spurning the use of self-protective devices such as seat belts. In the traditional case, a negligent defendant pays damages, or a plaintiff suffers a reduction of his recovery, according to the actual amount of negligence chargeable to that party.
Despite these general rules, the legislature has declared that a negligent failure to use self-protective devices such as seat belts should be treated differently, although in many cases nearly all of the injuries are directly caused by the failure to wear seat belts.
Although no Iowa cases have addressed the question, I believe our common law would grant the right to a defendant to prove the true extent of a plaintiffs negligence based on a failure to wear seat belts as required by law and to obtain a corresponding reduction of damages.
Section 321.445(4)(b)(2), which seriously abridges that right, should be viewed as an unconstitutional impairment of a defendant’s right to trial on that issue. See Iowa Nat’l Mut. Ins. Co. v. Mitchell, 305 N.W.2d 724, 728 (Iowa 1981).