Court Opinion

ID: 9533388
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:31:20.229621+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:02.436315
License: Public Domain

ROSSMAN, J.,
specially concurring.
As the majority opinion states, the plaintiff testified that shortly prior to the accident she requested the defendant to “permit her to leave the automobile, but defendant refused to acquiesce” in her request. The presiding judge [not the trial judge], upon motion of the defendant, struck from the specifications of gross negligence which formed a part of the complaint an averment setting forth that after the plaintiff had admonished the defendant concerning the manner in which he was driving the automobile and had requested him to permit someone else to operate it “or, if defendant refused to do that, to permit plaintiff to get out of said automobile.” The order which struck the averment stated that evidence in its support would be admissible under the remaining parts of the pleading. The answer alleges that although the plaintiff “well knew, or should have known, of the manner in which defendant was operating said automobile, she nevertheless entered and remained in said automobile and failed to depart therefrom.” Based upon the circumstances just mentioned, the plaintiff contends in this court that after she had asked the defendant to stop the automobile so that she could depart from it, and the defendant had refused to do so, she was no longer a guest but was a captive of the defendant. Proceeding further with that contention, she argues that after her request and the defendant’s refusal of it, the automobile guest statute (ORS 30.110) was not applicable and that *553it was unnecessary for her to prove recklessness or gross negligence. Simple negligence, according to her, thereupon sufficed to establish her cause. The opinion of this court does not state the disposition of that issue. The plaintiff’s testimony that she protested the manner in which the car was being operated and that she requested permission to depart from it was not contradicted. The plaintiff’s veracity, however, was not left unimpaired. The trier of facts was not required to accept her testimony as the truth. That being so, the general finding, which has the effect of a jury’s verdict, must be construed by us as a holding against the plaintiff’s affirmation that she requested the defendant to stop the car and permit her to leave. Thus, she failed to bring her case to the point where it became necessary to consider whether the cause was controlled by ORS 30.110. It is worthy of note that the complaint makes no averment that the plaintiff was a captive, and depends upon charges of recklessness and gross negligence; none of simple negligence.