Court Opinion

ID: 9575794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:17:19.277071+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:50:04.831856
License: Public Domain

*258aThe following memorandum was filed February 5, 1963:
Per Curiam
(on motion for rehearing). Plaintiff on his motion for rehearing argues that he followed the same procedure as did the successful appellant plaintiff in McConville v. State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. (1962), 15 Wis. (2d) 374, 113 N. W. (2d) 14, and that, therefore, he should be allowed to raise before this court the error in the trial below which resulted when the jury was allowed to consider the conduct of the plaintiff guest as assumption of risk instead of as contributory negligence. In both cases the procedure followed by the plaintiff, who had been found guilty of assumption of risk by the jury, was to move for a new trial in the interest of justice. Therefore, plaintiff contends he is entitled to the same relief in this court as was accorded the plaintiff in McConville.
The court’s opinion and two concurring opinions in Baird v. Cornelius, 12 Wis. (2d) 284, 107 N. W. (2d) 278, were rendered January 10, 1961, which was a little over a month after the jury had rendered its verdict in McConville. The question of abolishing assumption of risk in host-guest automobile accident cases had not been briefed in the Baird Case appeal. Nevertheless, it was made manifest by the concurring opinions that two justices had reached the conclusion that this defense should be abolished in this type of case, and that three other justices, while much impressed with the reasons advanced for doing so by these two justices, thought it inadvisable to take the step of abolishing this defense until the question had been thoroughly briefed and argued in some subsequent appeal.
When the Baird Case opinions were announced it was too late for plaintiff in McConville to move for a new trial grounded on error in submitting an issue of assumption of risk to the jury because the form of the verdict had not been timely objected to. Therefore, he raised the issue by re*258bquesting a new trial in the interest of justice, but the trial court denied the motion. On the appeal to this court counsel on both sides ably and thoroughly briefed the issue of abolishing assumption of risk in host-guest cases. While plaintiff McConville was not entitled to raise it as a matter of right, but only by invoking this court’s discretionary power under sec. 251.09, Stats., we deemed it a proper situation in which to exercise this discretionary power. There was also a mitigating circumstance present to excuse plaintiff in McConville from sooner raising in the trial court the issue of abolishing assumption of risk as a defense. This was the fact that the verdict had gone to the jury before the opinions in the Baird Case had been announced. The instant case was not tried until some eleven months had elapsed after the handing down of the Baird Case opinions. Thus plaintiff, if he intended to protect his right on appeal to raise the assumption-of-risk issue as a matter of right, should have objected to the form of verdict.
The rule announced in the court’s original opinion herein, to be applied in those cases where judgments entered prior to McConville are appealed on the ground that they are erroneous because of that decision, received our careful consideration at the time. We are not now persuaded that it should be modified so as to afford relief to plaintiff.
The motion for rehearing is denied with $25 costs.