Court Opinion

ID: 9530552
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:00:58.777126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:09.730516
License: Public Domain

Finley, J.
(dissenting)—I concur with both the result reached in the dissenting opinion and with what I conceive to be the underlying reasoning therefor. However, I think that some clarification is desirable respecting so much of the opinion as denominates the automobile a dangerous instrumentality. The term has been used from time to time by lawyers and judges to describe an instrumentality which, no matter how carefully used, is inordinately dangerous. As a consequence of this quality, the principle of absolute liability, without regard to what is normally characterized as fault or blame, has been applied in those cases wherein *811harm results from the use of such an instrumentality. In the early days of the automobile, when it was strange and new and of limited utility, a number of courts held that it was just such a dangerous instrumentality. In certain portions of Europe it is still regarded as such. However, the courts of this country are now unanimous in holding that the operator of an automobile is liable only for negligently caused harm. As both use and social utility of the automobile have increased, it has generally become recognized that the carefully driven automobile is not inordinately dangerous.
However, as graphically set out in the dissenting opinion, our experience has also taught us that the negligently driven automobile is a tremendously dangerous thing, in terms of the seriousness of both the physical injuries and property damage it can cause. Often, however, the actual operator of the vehicle, whose negligence caused the harm, is financially unable to adequately compensate the injured person. Recognizing this fact, both courts and legislatures throughout the country have taken steps to remedy this situation. Compulsory liability insurance is one answer. The so-called “family car doctrine,” making the owner of an automobile liable for its negligent operation by a member of his family, is another. Implicit in this latter solution is the notion that the owner of the automobile is more likely to be financially responsible than is the nonowning operator. As noted in the dissenting opinion, the legislatures of several states have gone one step farther with this same idea and have enacted statutes making the owner liable for the automobile’s negligent operation by any person who is using the car with the owner’s permission.
The Florida court has taken this same step without waiting for the legislature to act. However, somewhat unfortunately, because of the implications of absolute liability in the conventional sense which are often attached to the term, the Florida court has based its rule on a characterization of the automobile as a dangerous instrumentality. It is clear, however, from a reading of the many Florida cases *812wherein the rule has been applied that the Florida court has not imposed absolute liability for all harm resulting from the operation of an automobile. See 5 Fla. L. Rev. 412. As I read it, the dissenting opinion in the instant case does not propose doing so. Fault on the part of the operator must still be proved. Also, it must be proved that the negligent operator was using the car with the permission of the owner. Thus, though the automobile is designated a dangerous instrumentality, it is only the negligently driven automobile, driven with the consent of the owner, that occasions liability as to the owner.
With these considerations in mind I have signed and concur in the views expressed in the dissenting opinion by Judge Foster.
Hunter, J., concurs with Finley, J.