Court Opinion

ID: 9687210
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:18:55.358782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:24.810381
License: Public Domain

WINANS, Judge
(dissenting).
*693I dissent and will state my reasons without elaboration. In Wentzel v. Huebner, 78 S.D. 481, 104 N.W.2d 695 (1960), the question of whether the defendant was entitled to an instruction on the issue of plaintiff's contributory negligence under what is now SDCL 32-34-2 was taken care of by this court's statement, "It so clearly appears that the substance of defendant's request appears in the court's instructions dealing with the defenses of contributory negligence and assumption of risk, and, read as a whole, that the court's instructions fairly submitted those issues to the jury". Nowhere in this case does the court take care of the defense of contributory negligence and I lean to the view that defendant was entitled to the requested instruction. It is a defense under the law specifically provided for by the statute. Assumption of risk which was taken care of by the court is not a substitute for and neither does it necessarily embrace the same law theories as does contributory negligence. In Harper and James, The Law of Torts, Vol. 2, § 22.2, at page 1201, we find the following:
"Contributory negligence has sometimes been thought to be no more than an aspect of assumption of risk, so that plaintiff is barred from recovery under the maxim volenti non fit injuria. This explanation, too, would warrant the rule in its present form, as a complete bar to plaintiff's action. The two notions, however, do not cover the same ground and in many situations do not even overlap, though they may. Assumption of risk involves the negation of defendant's duty; contributory negligence is a defense to a breach of such duty. Assumption of risk may involve perfectly reasonable conduct on plaintiff's part; contributory negligence never does. Assumption of risk typically involves the voluntary or deliberate incurring of known peril; contributory negligence frequently involves the inadvertent failure to notice danger. Only confusion can come from failure to keep separate these two strands of legal doctrine."
See Annot., 82 A.L.R.2d, beginning at page 1218.
The difference between the conduct of the driver of the car and his guests in this case is that the driver had hold of the *694steering wheel and it was his foot upon the gas pedal. Of course this is an important difference, but all were drinking and if drinking was an important issue on which to base willful and wanton conduct on the part of the defendant driver, it ought at least be important enough on which the jury might find contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff when coupled with the other facts of this case. The speed with which the automobile was traveling does not appear to have been anything the plaintiff was particularly concerned about and as a matter of fact I think he actively gave his approval to it, "What are you going to do, burn the cobs out?" or "Let's burn the cobs out of it". The plaintiff did not appear to have remonstrated with the defendant driver about going through the stoplights on a busy thoroughfare with which they were all familiar, narrowly missing other automobiles that had the right-of-way over the driver. It is plain to me from the record that this was just a thrill ride in which all of the parties were engaged and some injuries occurred, and I think injury could have been expected to occur and under these circumstances in order to uphold this verdict the defense was entitled to the requested instruction.