Court Opinion

ID: 9545138
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:07:00.951941+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:09.549147
License: Public Domain

Neill, J.
(concurring) — I have not subscribed the majority opinion due to reservations about some of the language employed therein. My concern is that the majority opinion, broadly read, could be taken as relieving a plaintiff from any legal consequences of a breach of his own duties of self-protection, even when such results in an apportionable exacerbation of the harm suffered in an accident, so long as that breach is not a contributing cause of the accident. I am not at all convinced that such a position would be correct; and I do not think it necessary to reach that point in disposing of this appeal.
I concur in the result of the majority opinion because, as noted by the majority, the legislature has not seen fit to impose an affirmative duty to wear seat belts. And I am not prepared to declare a common law duty to wear seat belts while traveling in motor vehicles. Therefore, I agree with the affirmance on the basis that a failure by plaintiff to wear a seat belt would not, in the present state of things, amount to a breach of his duty to exercise reasonable care in his own behalf.
Stafford, J., concurs with Neill, J.