Court Opinion

ID: 9551793
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:59:14.069483+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:39.353595
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.
— I dissent. The operative fact incumbent upon plaintiffs to establish in this case was the owner’s consent to the use of the automobile. This fact must be established, not with certainty or beyond a reasonable doubt, but as probably true. Only if the trier of facts could reasonably conclude from the evidence that it was more probable that the employee was operating the automobile with the owner’s consent than without it can the finding to that effect be sustained. Such a conclusion may be reached by way of an inference, in accord with the rule recently affirmed in the majority opinion in Blank v. Coffin, 20 Cal.2d 457, 460-461 [126 P.2d 868]: “An inference is a conclusion as to the existence of a material fact that a jury may properly draw from the existence of certain primary facts. (Oal. Code Civ. Proc., secs. 1958, 1960, 1832; see cases cited in 10 Cal.Jur. 736-738, sec. 59.) It is not always possible for a party to a lawsuit to introduce evidence directly bearing upon the existence of a fact that he is attempting to prove. The evidence available to him may serve only to establish the existence of certain primary facts that are logically connected with the material fact. If a jury can reasonably infer from these primary facts that the material fact exists, the party has introduced sufficient evidence to entitle him to have the jury decide the issue. The jury is not compelled to draw the inference, however, even in the absence of contrary evidence and may refuse to do so. Whether a particular inference can be drawn from certain evidence is a question of law, but whether the inference shall be drawn, in any given case, is a question of fact for the jury. (See eases cited in 10 Cal. *666Jur. 738-739, sec. 60.)” This language makes it clear that an inference from the facts proved must be a reasonable one. The essence of an inference is its reasonableness, as this court recognized when it denied a hearing in Maupin v. Solomon, 41 Cal.App. 323, 326 [183 P. 198], declaring: “When we say that a certain inference is warranted by certain facts proved, we mean no more than that the jury is reasonably warranted in making that deduction from the facts.” (See, also, Crouch v. Gilmore Oil Co., 5 Cal.2d 330 [54 P.2d 709]; Grand Lodge of A.O.U.W. v. Miller, 8 Cal.App. 25 [96 P. 22].)
The majority opinion, invoking certain statements in Blank v. Coffin, supra, holds that the single fact that John Reis was appellant’s employee warrants the inference that he was operating the automobile with appellant’s consent at the time of the accident, and reduces the issue to whether the inference was dispelled by the evidence. The first question, however, is whether an inference of consent can reasonably be drawn from all the evidence favorable to plaintiffs; if it cannot, the question whether it is dispelled never arises. It is my opinion that such an inference cannot reasonably be drawn from the single fact that the person operating the automobile at the time of the accident was an employee of the owner. The statements in Blank v. Coffin that it can are too broad and must be read in the light of the many facts in that case beyond the single one that the automobile was operated by an employee of the owner: “The testimony of Coffin and Stuperich revealed the following facts that would justify the jury in concluding that Coffin was driving the automobile with the tacit permission of the defendant: Coffin was given exclusive possession of the automobile; he kept it in his own garage without charge to the company; the manual of instructions that he received forbade the use of the car on vacations, but did not forbid its use for personal matters; the company could determine that Coffin was habitually using the car for his personal business by checking his mileage reports against his gasoline reports; Coffin was not discharged after discovery of his use of the car on a weekend trip and was allowed to resume possession of it after a short lay-off.” It was the sum of all these facts that led the court to hold that the inference of the owner’s consent was a reasonable one. When, however, the fact stands alone *667that the car was operated by an employee of the owner, there is no more reason to infer the owner’s consent from the employer-employee relationship than there would be to infer it from any one of countless social or business relationships that could exist between the operator of a car and its owner. It does not follow that because an employer owns a car he consents to its use by an employee, or that a car taken by an employee from his place of employment is taken with the owner’s consent any more than if it were taken from the street.
No such inference can be drawn in the present ease from the evidence most favorable to respondents. John Reis was in charge of the lot the night he took the car. He had his own car with him and had not requested permission to take a company car from the lot. He took the car without the knowledge of appellant or Hume, the manager of the lot. He kept it overnight, but did not report for work the next day, which was his birthday. On a previous occasion he had taken a car out overnight and returned it the following morning after covering a distance of 14 miles. He had occasionally taken cars from the lot for demonstration to customers and for transportation to lunch a few blocks away. He was interested in purchasing the automobile and had talked with appellant about it, but was financially unable to make such a purchase. He had five years’ experience in selling used cars and was familiar with motors. He had run the motor while it was standing on the lot and on the night of June 13th drove it six or seven miles to his home. He was not satisfied with it then but by the time he had driven it the next day for about 37 miles he was satisfied with its performance. That night he and his brother Stanley and two women took a ride in the car. The purpose of this trip was “mainly social.” John Reis wanted his brother’s opinion of the car and asked him to drive. John Reis thought they would go on to Santa Barbara but they turned back at Oxnard, about 60 miles out of Los Angeles, because of the chilly weather. John Reis sat in the rumble seat part of the time with one of the women and the rest of the time alone.
A trier of facts might reasonably infer from this evidence that John Reis had appellant’s permission to use cars on the lot for demonstration and for small personal errands, and to try out the car himself in the usual manner as a prospec*668tive customer. It is quite another matter to infer that he had the owner’s consent to retain the car for thirty-six hours or more and take his brother and two women on a 120 mile pleasure trip. There is no evidence from which it can reasonably be inferred that appellant gave his consent to so extensive an appropriation of the automobile. The rule is well settled that the owner is not liable for injuries caused by the user of his car in the course of a use exceeding that for which consent was given. (Henrietta v. Evans, 10 Cal.2d 526 [75 P.2d 1051]; Engstrom v. Auburn Auto. Sales Corp., 11 Cal.2d 64 [77 P.2d 1059]; Di Rebaylio v. Herndon, 6 Cal.App.2d 567 [44 P.2d 581]; Souza v. Corti,  (Cal.App.) [129 P.2d 729].)
Edmonds, J., concurred.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied March 25, 1943. Edmonds, J., and Traynor, J., voted for a hearing. Schauer, J., did not participate therein.