Court Opinion

ID: 9781816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 17:32:34.365552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:39.760538
License: Public Domain

JONES, Vice Chief Justice,
specially concurring:
1127 I join the majority on the issues before the court; I write this additional note, however, to make the following observation.
¶ 28 Today’s opinion, in my view, adds a much needed dimension to the common law. I understand the reluctance of our dissenting colleagues to hold a tortfeasor’s estate liable in exemplary damages where the tortfeasor himself is dead and the heirs are innocent of wrongdoing. But, I find unpersuasive the argument that death, as opposed to survival, of a tortfeasor engaged in outrageous conduct should make a difference. Where general deterrence, as here, is a prime factor, exemplary relief makes sense.
¶ 29 This case involves a highway collision in which the tortfeasor, driving his vehicle in a drugged stupor, killed himself and injured his victim. Interestingly, had he survived the crash with full, permanent mental disability, he would be “alive” but unable to function. In that case, the dissent, of necessity, would be compelled under its rationale to accept the position announced today by the majority of the court. To me, a distinction based solely on survival of the tortfeasor makes no sense. It is his conduct that justifies exemplary relief, not whether he survives his own malfeasance.
¶ 30 The majority does not “upend” a traditional rule, as suggested by the dissent, but rather sustains a far more fundamental principle — that the common law lives and responds to human experience. The instant case calls to mind the ancient maxim — Ex-perientia Per Varios Actus Legem Facit— which means “Experience by various acts makes law.” Black’s Law Dictionary 688 (4th ed.1951). Mr. Justice Holmes, writing on the subject, commented, “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Common Law 1 (1881). If we cannot learn after having experienced the often tragic results of reckless, wanton conduct, indeed we all become victims of our own misfortune.
¶31 When a person, as here, engages in behavior so egregious as to drive a motor vehicle in a drugged or drunken state, resulting in the death or injury of innocent people, he or she must recognize that the decision to drive in that condition may result in placing everything on the line, even if solely as a reminder to others so tempted.