Court Opinion

ID: 9619945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:35:38.811509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:45.870033
License: Public Domain

Donworth, J.
(concurring in the result)—The trial court found that appellant husband caused his car (which for a considerable period of time had been parked parallel to the curb immediately behind respondents’ parked car) to strike respondents’ car with substantial impact. It further *739found that such contact was of substantial force, and that it was unreasonable to strike respondents’ car as hard as appellant did. Respondent wife was seated in respondents’ car at the time of the impact, as appellant husband knew when he put his car in motion. The two cars had been stationary at the curb for some time prior to appellant husband’s attempt to unpark his car. He was very angry because respondent wife had told him that she could not drive her car and that appellants would have to wait until her husband returned.
Damages of $7,000 were awarded to her by the judgment of the trial court because of the personal injuries sustained by respondent wife as the result of appellant husband’s driving his car into her car. This was in addition to special damages of $613.
Although the case was tried on the issues of negligence and contributory negligence and last clear chance, these findings and others made by the trial court, in my opinion, show wanton misconduct on the part of appellant husband, and not negligence. The trial court’s findings convince me that appellant husband performed an intentional act in reckless disregard of the consequences under such circumstances that a reasonable man would know that his conduct would, in a high degree of probability, result in substantial harm to the occupant of the car, parked in front of his.
In Greetan v. Solomon, 47 Wn. (2d) 354, 287 P. (2d) 721 (1955), we discussed the doctrine of wanton misconduct as follows:
“This court recently had occasion to consider and apply the doctrine of wanton misconduct in Adkisson v. Seattle, 42 Wn. (2d) 676, 258 P. (2d) 461, a case which is referred to in the briefs of both parties. While that case involved the collision of an automobile with an unlighted obstruction in the mainly traveled portion of a public street which carried heavy traffic, the definition therein of wanton misconduct is, in our opinion, applicable to the facts of this case. After quoting from Restatement of the Law of Torts, at page 1293, § 500, we defined wanton misconduct as follows:
*740“ ‘Wanton misconduct is not negligence, since it involves intent rather than inadvertence, and is positive rather than negative. It is the intentional doing of an act, or intentional failure to do an act, in reckless disregard of the consequences, and under such surrounding circumstances and conditions that a reasonable man would know, or have reason to know, that such conduct would, in a high degree of probability, result in substantial harm to another.’ ”
I think that the conduct of appellant husband, as described in the trial court’s findings, did not constitute merely negligence but was wanton misconduct as defined in the above quotation. Thus, the issue of respondents’ alleged contributory negligence could no longer be considered as a factor in the case. Adkisson v. Seattle, 42 Wn. (2d) 676, 258 P. (2d) 461 (1953).
I, therefore, would affirm the trial court’s judgment for the reason that appellants are liable for the injuries sustained by respondent wife, which were caused by the wanton misconduct of appellant husband in intentionally starting to extricate his car from its cramped location at the curb in violent and reckless disregard of the consequences under circumstances which a reasonable man would know that his acts would, in a high degree of probability, result in substantial harm to the occupant of respondents’ car.
For the reason stated, I concur in the result of the majority opinion.
Finley, C. J., and Ott, J., concur with Donworth, J.
July 6, 1962. Petition for rehearing denied.