Court Opinion

ID: 9687895
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:52:46.053256+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:08:15.991043
License: Public Domain

*697McCORMICK, Justice
(dissenting).
I do not believe the majority decision meets the constitutional issue raised in this appeal. That issue, simply put but not capable of simple answer, is whether the legislature has drawn a rational line in singling out and excluding motor vehicle guests from those entitled to recover damages for injuries caused by the ordinary negligence of vehicle drivers.
It is necessary at the outset to identify the classification made by the guest statute. By its terms, it purports to classify all motor vehicle passengers into one of two groups, those who are guests and those who are not. Guests have no remedy for injury caused by a driver’s negligence; other passengers retain their common law right of action.
The statute does not say what passengers are guests. That task was left entirely to this court. In an effort to serve the apparent legislative purpose to shield owners and operators of motor vehicles from liability for negligent injury to their passengers we decided any injured passenger who asserts a claim against a vehicle owner or operator has the burden to prove he was not riding as a guest. Murray v. Lang, 252 Iowa 260, 106 N.W.2d 643 (1960). In that way the classification signified by legislative use of the term “guest” was left for judicial definition. Definition of guest status, as a result, has been a case by case process of exclusion. It is thus not sufficient to say we are dealing with a legislative classification. The judicial branch was handed the responsibility to apply an undefined statutory classification to concrete factual situations. Consequently the resulting guest statute classification can be identified and analyzed only by study of litigation in this state involving the issue of passenger status. The majority does not identify the classification except by reference to the statute.
Commentators elsewhere have labeled the judicial application of guest statutes a process of judicial nullification. See, e. g., Comment, Judicial Nullification of Guest Statutes, 41 S.Cal.L.Rev. 884 (1968); Comment, 54 Nw.U.L.Rev. 263; Note, 3 Wyo. L.J. 225 (1949). Others have simply recognized the utter confusion and disarray produced by judicial efforts to apply the statutes. See, e. g., Note, 18 Cornell L.Q. 621 (1933); Tipton, Florida’s Automobile Guest Statute, 11 U.Fla.L.Rey. 287 (1958) ; Comment, 8 W.Res.L.Rev. 170 (1957).
The difficulty in distinguishing and reconciling cases based on application of the statute to concrete factual situations led the court in Olson v. Hodges, 236 Iowa 612, 613, 19 N.W.2d 676, 678 (1945), to observe :
“Automobile-guest cases * * * have been before this court many times since [the guest statute’s] enactment in 1927. The provisions of the statute and the controlling principles of law as repeatedly stated by this court are well known. The difficulty lies in the application of those principles to the varying facts in each case. Because the cases differ in facts, there is no profit in the dissection of precedents.”
See Ross v. McNeal, 171 N.W.2d 515, 518 (Iowa 1969) (“Each case must be decided in the light of its own facts.”). Thus, although the guest statute classification cannot be understood except by analysis of the cases, we are forewarned that each case constitutes a separate classification based on its own facts.
In any event, the statute cannot be understood without reference to the cases. When it is understood from that perspective, I believe the resulting legislative classification is constitutionally indefensible.
I. The cases. In Knutson v. Lurie, 217 Iowa 192, 251 N.W. 147 (1933), the general outline of the excluded class is drawn. It is not limited to > passengers who pay to ride. It includes an occupant performing duties as a servant of the owner or operator of the motor vehicle, or who rides there for the definite and tangible benefit *698of the owner or operator, or for the mutual, definite and tangible benefit of the owner or operator and the occupant. Benefits which are incidental to hospitality, social relations, companionship and the like are not “definite and tangible.”
A problem arose early relating to whether one not actually in the motor vehicle is a guest. In Puckett v. Pailthorpe, 207 Iowa 613, 223 N.W. 254 (1929), a woman about to enter an unoccupied car to wait to be driven home was injured when she opened the door and it fell onto her foot. She was held not to be a guest because not riding in the car when injured. Similarly, a boy riding on a sled hooked to the rear of a moving car was held not to be a guest in Samuelson v. Sherrill, 225 Iowa 421, 280 N.W. 596 (1938). A woman who was injured when hit by a truck from which she had just alighted was held not to be a guest in Shinofield v. Curtis, 245 Iowa 1352, 66 N.W.2d 465 (1954). But a woman who opened a car door preparatory to entering and was injured when the car started in reverse was held to be a guest in Rainsbarger v. Shepherd, 254 Iowa 486, 118 N.W.2d 41 (1962), where the court distinguished Puckett v. Pailthorpe, supra, on the ground the host in Puckett was not yet in the car or operating it.
A passenger was held to be a guest as a matter of law despite evidence she was being transported against her will in Vance v. Grohe, 223 Iowa 1109, 274 N.W. 902 (1937). An owner was held to be a guest in his own automobile in Murray v. Lang, supra, and a 13 day-old child was held to be a guest in Horst v. Holtzen, 249 Iowa 958, 90 N.W.2d 41 (1958).
A passenger permitted to ride to market with his cattle as part of the inducement for the shipping contract was held to be a passenger for hire in Boge v. Jack Link Truck Line, Inc., 200 N.W.2d 544 (Iowa 1972). But a passenger permitted to ride to market without such inducement was held to be a guest in Johnson v. Johnson, 174 N.W.2d 444 (Iowa 1970). The jury may find a truck passenger not a guest even though asked to accompany the driver to keep him company if also expected to help load the truck at its destination. In re Estate of Ronfeldt, 261 Iowa 12, 152 N.W.2d 837 (1967). A jury question is also generated if he testified he was asked to go along as a relief driver. Porter v. Decker, 222 Iowa 1109, 270 N.W. 897 (1937). But an automobile passenger who rides after being told she “should” help with the driving is a guest as a matter of law. Sullivan v. Harris, 224 Iowa 345, 276 N.W. 88 (1937).
In Livingston v. Schreckengost, 255 Iowa 1102, 125 N.W.2d 126 (1963), two teachers commuting to college took turns driving their respective cars. The court held a ride-sharing arrangement motivated by economy rather than companionship would be a definite and tangible benefit. The same rule was applied in Marean v. Petersen, 259 Iowa 557, 144 N.W.2d 906 (1966). But a division of expenses was held not sufficient to make a passenger other than a guest. McCornack v. Pickerell, 225 Iowa 1076, 283 N.W. 899 (1939); Clendenning v. Simerman, 220 Iowa 739, 263 N.W. 248 (1935). One who simply rode to a job site with a fellow worker was held to be a guest in Nielsen v. Kohlstedt, 254 Iowa 470, 117 N.W.2d 900 (1962).
Payment of 75 cents toward gas expense by a nurse riding with another to a polio workshop was held not to be a definite and tangible benefit in Haas v. Owens, 248 Iowa 781, 81 N.W.2d 654 (1957). But a jury question to take the passenger out of the guest statute was found to exist where there was evidence a nurse rode along on a shopping excursion to help the driver pick out nurses’ uniforms. Bodaken v. Logan, 254 Iowa 230, 117 N.W.2d 470 (1962). A jury question was found where there was evidence the passenger accompanied the driver on a trip to Omaha to help pick out a wedding gift. Winter v. Moore, 255 Iowa 1, 121 N.W.2d 82 (1963). A jury question was also found where a passenger paid $2 for a trip and $2 for gas for a *699IS mile ride with a tavern acquaintance. Morrow v. Redd, 257 Iowa 151, 131 N.W.2d 761 (1964). The same was true where a passenger expended sums for repairs and tires and agreed to share expenses with a sister while traveling to Mississippi to their grandmother’s funeral. Bilbro v. Bilbro, 256 Iowa 499, 128 N.W.2d 282 (1964). But a passenger who helped pay for gas for her sister’s car when riding with her to Minnesota to help another sister with her housework was held as a matter of law to be a guest in Badger v. Groszbach, 259 Iowa 644, 145 N.W.2d 588 (1966).
A passenger driven to his own home to obtain phonograph records and a stereo to entertain the driver and others was held to be a guest as a matter of law in Vipond v. Jergensen, 260 Iowa 646, 148 N.W.2d 598 (1967). The same result was reached where a passenger rode along to furnish directions to place where another passenger could buy a chain saw in Jackson v. Brown, 164 N.W.2d 824 (Iowa 1969). But a jury question was found where there was evidence a passenger rode with a driver to help look for stolen fender skirts. Ritter v. Dexter, 250 Iowa 830, 95 N.W.2d 280 (1959); cf. McBride v. Dexter, 250 Iowa 7, 92 N.W.2d 443 (1958). A jury question was also recognized where there was evidence a passenger rode along to direct the driver to the location of some beer in Sieren v. Stoutner, 162 N.W.2d 396 (Iowa 1968).
The court said in Delay v. Kudart, 256 Iowa 523, 128 N.W.2d 201 (1964), that if a passenger rode along to help determine if the car’s engine and carburetor were adjusted and performing properly he would not be a guest. But where there was evidence a passenger was asked to ride with a driver to see if the car would stop heating up, he was held to be a guest as a matter of law. Sauer v. Scott, 176 N.W.2d 140 (Iowa 1970).
A jury question was found where the passenger was a maid given a ride by her employer to pick up the maid’s repaired shoes. Knutson v. Lurie, supra. The issue was also held for the jury where a passenger accompanied a co-employee in picking up material for their employer. Hansen v. Nelson, 240 Iowa 1298, 39 N.W.2d 292 (1949).
In McCrady v. Sino, 254 Iowa 856, 118 N.W.2d 592 (1962), a jury question was found based on evidence a minor passenger rode in a truck box to help comfort the driver’s ponies. A jury question was also held to exist where there was evidence a passenger rode in a car because of the driver’s apprehension over the weather. Zwanziger v. Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., 259 Iowa 14, 141 N.W.2d 568 (1966). A woman who rode in a city ambulance to comfort her critically injured son was, as a matter of law, not a guest. Anderson v. City of Council Bluffs, 195 N.W.2d 373 (Iowa 1972). But a grandmother who rode along with her daughter to “baby sit” a grandchild in the car was held as a matter of law to be a guest in Ross v. McNeal, supra.
Jury questions to take passengers out of the statute were found where there was evidence a passenger rode in a truck in a common endeavor to collect scrap for the war effort in Thuente v. Hart Motors, 234 Iowa 1294, 15 N.W.2d 622 (1944), and where a passenger was helping a fellow member of a lodge’s food committee take food to the lodge in Stenberg v. Buckley, 245 Iowa 622, 61 N.W.2d 452 (1953). But no jury question was found when a little girl was injured while riding with a volunteer mother on a girl scout outing. Wharff v. McBride, 183 N.W.2d 700 (Iowa 1971).
A jury question existed when a passenger was riding as a prospective purchaser in a car driven by a used car salesman. Bookhart v. Greenlease-Lied Motor Co., 215 Iowa 8, 244 N.W. 721 (1932). The same was true when a car salesman gave a ride to an employee of a prospective purchaser. Wittrock v. Newcom, 224 Iowa 925, 277 N.W. 286 (1938), and when an implement dealer furnished a ride to the *700brother of a prospective purchaser of a tractor so the customer could have the ben efit of the brother’s advice, Mitchell v. Heaton, 231 Iowa 269, 1 N.W.2d 284 (1941). But a passenger who rode with a prospective purchaser in a used car to advise him on the purchase was held as a matter of law to be a guest of the car dealer in Sproll v. Burkett Motor Co., 223 Iowa 902, 274 N.W. 63 (1937).
The guest statute classification of motor vehicle passengers demonstrated in these cases is the subject of the equal protection challenge in the present case.
II. The constitutional standard. Plaintiffs contend this classification offends federal and state constitutional assurances of equal protection. Section 1 of Amendment 14, United States Constitution, provides that no state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction. Article 1, § 6 of the Iowa Constitution requires that all laws have a uniform operation and shall not grant privileges which, upon the same terms, do not belong to all. These provisions set substantially the same limitation on state legislation. Graham v. Worthington, 259 Iowa 845, 863, 146 N.W.2d 626, 638 (1966). Nevertheless, deference to state laws based on the concept of federalism is not involved in applying the state constitutional standard.
The equal protection standard does not outlaw all classifications but does prohibit unreasonable classifications.
Although legislatures exist to decide the wisdom of statutes, courts exist to decide their constitutionality. When the legislature’s judgment of the wisdom of a statute is shown to conflict with a constitutional limitation on legislative power, it is the responsibility of the courts to strike the statute. With due deference to the majority view and to legislative judgment, I am unable to reconcile the guest statute with the overriding equal protection mandate of the state and federal constitutions.
The majority recites the traditional rule defining the heavy burden on one who attacks the constitutionality of a statute. This is frequently done as a prelude to a judicial declaration the attack has failed in a given case. See, e. g., Lunday v. Vogelmann, 213 N.W.2d 904, 907 (Iowa 1973), and citations. It is frequently omitted in cases where the attack is successful. See, e. g., State v. Wedelstedt, 213 N.W.2d 652 (Iowa 1973). Perhaps one may be forgiven for suspecting recital of the rule sometimes serves as a substitute for critical analysis.
In reality we ought to acknowledge the presumption of constitutionality is truly re-buttable and not simply a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I agree with the commentator in 45 Temp.L.Q. 432, 443 (1972) who observed, “As long as a court grants the legislature a truly rebuttable presumption of constitutionality, the guest should be able to prove there is not a rational basis for guest laws.”
I also agree with the unanimous view of this court in Chicago & N.W. Ry. Co. v. Fachman, 255 Iowa 989, 1003, 125 N.W.2d 210, 217-218 (1963), that federal and state constitutional equal protection provisions “should not be frittered away,” that “their importance in guarding against the segregation of society into classes, and in assuring to all citizens * * * equality before the law, which is essential to free government, cannot be overestimated,” and that if statutes cannot be saved from constitutional attack except “by resort to refinements in distinction and sophistry in reasoning * * * , they should fall.”
The United States Supreme Court has given increasing emphasis to the concept that even under traditional equal protection analysis a legislative classification is unreasonable if it lacks a fair and substantial relation to a proper legislative goal. United States Dep’t of Agriculture v. Moreno, 413 U.S. 528, 93 S.Ct. 2821, 37 L.Ed.2d 782 (1973); Weber v. Aetna Casualty & Surety *701Co., 406 U.S. 164, 172, 92 S.Ct. 1400, 1405, 31 L.Ed.2d 768, 777 (1972) (“the tests to determine the validity of state statutes under the Equal Protection Clause have been variously expressed, hut this Court requires, at a minimum, that a statutory classification bear some rational relationship to a legitimate state purpose.”); Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71, 92 S.Ct. 251, 30 L.Ed.2d 225 (1971); The Supreme Court, 1972 Term, 87 Harv.L.Rev. 55, 125-133 (1973); Gunther, The Supreme Court, 1971 Term —Foreward: In Search of Evolving Doctrine on a Changing Court: A Model for a Newer Equal Protection, 86 Harv. L.Rev. 1 (1972).
Thus, even under the traditional equal protection standard, states may not legislate people into disparate classes on the basis of criteria not having a fair and substantial relation to the object of the legislation. Equal protection continues to demand that all persons similarly situated be treated alike. A classification denies equal protection unless it includes all who are similarly situated and none who are not. That is, it is unreasonable if it is either under-inclusive or over-inclusive. See United States Dep’t of Agriculture v. Moreno, supra; Gomez v. Perez, 409 U.S. 535, 93 S.Ct. 872, 35 L.Ed.2d 56 (1973); Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 92 S.Ct. 2286, 33 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972); James v. Strange, 407 U.S. 128, 92 S.Ct. 2027, 32 L.Ed.2d 600 (1972); Jackson v. Indiana, 406 U.S. 715, 92 S.Ct. 1845, 32 L.Ed.2d 435 (1972); Weber v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., supra; Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972); Reed v. Reed, supra.
In assessing the reasonableness of a classification we must consider matters of common knowledge. State v. Bartels, 191 Iowa 1060, 1073, 181 N.W. 508, 515 (1921) (“we must take into consideration matters of common knowledge and common report and the history of the times”). Further, we must evaluate it in the light of current legal rights of persons similarly situated. Otherwise we could not judge whether it is in fact under-inclusive or over-inclusive.
III. The reasonableness of the classification. We have no legislative history from which to determine the actual purpose of our legislature in enacting the guest statute.
Prior to enactment of the guest statute, under common law, a passenger could predicate liability on the driver’s ordinary negligence. Stanbery v. Johnson, 218 Iowa 160, 164, 254 N.W. 303, 305 (1934). As noted in Stanbery, the legislature obviously intended to eliminate the liability of owners and operators of motor vehicles to guest passengers except where the vehicle was being driven by a person under the influence of intoxicating liquor or recklessly, and now of course the exception includes any form of drug intoxication.
A comment in 14 Iowa L.Rev. 243 (1929) expressed the view the statute could be saved from equal protection attack only if it protected the negligence of owners and operators of motor vehicles as a valid exercise of the police power. The author noted, with considerable prescience:
“The benefit of the law will accrue to negligent hosts and liability insurance companies but such a result can scarcely support the measure as a police regulation. * * * [Tjhis statute without reason discriminates in favor of guests who are not occupants of automobiles, guests who ride as paying guests and guests of reckless or intoxicated drivers and against ordinary nonpaying guests in automobiles. Such a classification is so arbitrary that the denial of equal protection of the law seems to appear beyond a reasonable doubt.”
I believe Silver v. Silver, 280 U.S 117, 50 S.Ct. 57, 74 L.Ed. 221 (1929), which sustained the constitutionality of Connecticut’s guest statute, is distinguishable on three bases. First, the equal protection *702challenge there involved the narrow question of the permissibility of the distinction drawn between automobile guests and guests in other conveyances. At that time the court believed automotive travel was sufficiently unique that a state legislature might give automotive passengers disparate treatment. Any such uniqueness has dissipated.
Second, the intervening years have greatly expanded the right of recovery for ordinary negligence by persons similarly situated. And third, subsequent judicial application of the statute in Iowa has demonstrated the essentially equivocal, fortuitous and irrational nature of the effort at statutory classification.
This observation is supported by two of the last three state supreme court decisions dealing with the same constitutional issue. See Brown v. Merlo, 8 Cal.3d 855, 106 Cal.Rptr. 388, 506 P.2d 212 (1973); Henry v. Bauder, 518 P.2d 362 (Kan.1974); cf. Johnson v. Hassett, 217 N.W.2d 771 (N.D.1974). But see Tisco v. Harrison, 500 S.W.2d 565 (Tex.Civ.App.1973).
In the absence of knowledge of the actual legislative purpose for guest statutes, and in an endeavor to search for some rational basis to sustain them, courts have arrived at two main imputed legislative goals held to be rationally advanced by guest statutes. One is the hospitality or good Samaritan rationale adopted by the majority opinion in this case but largely discredited elsewhere. The other is the collusion-prevention rationale adopted by Texas in Tisco v. Harrison, supra, and in most other jurisdictions in which guest statutes have been upheld when attacked on equal protection grounds. See, e. g., Naudzius v. Lahr, 253 Mich. 216, 234 N.W. 581 (1931). Iowa adopted the hospitality rationale from a California case, Crawford v. Foster, 110 Cal.App. 81, 293 P. 841 (1930). Bookhart v. Greenlease-Lied Motor Co., supra. Now the majority opinion declines to follow California’s recognition of the irrationality of that basis for saving the statute.
IV. The hospitality goal. The fundamental premise of the “good Samaritan” argument is that an injured person should not recover damages based on ordinary negligence from a social host unless it is first demonstrated he has conferred a definite and tangible benefit on the host. See Knutson v. Lurie, supra. This premise is demonstrably inapplicable to any social guest other than a motor vehicle passenger.
Since the guest statute applies in Iowa only to motor vehicles as that term is defined in Code § 321.1(2), it does not include passengers in boats, airplanes, or other forms of conveyance. Public policy permits them to sue for their host’s ordinary negligence.
A social guest anywhere other than in a motor vehicle is permitted to recover for his host’s active negligence. This includes a host who is a possessor of land. See Lattner v. Immaculate Conception Church, 255 Iowa 120, 121 N.W.2d 639 (1963); Mann v. Des Moines Ry. Co., 232 Iowa 1049, 7 N.W.2d 45 (1942); cf. Rosenau v. City of Estherville, 199 N.W.2d 125 (Iowa 1972); Hanson v. Town & Country Shopping Center, Inc., 259 Iowa 542, 144 N.W.2d 870 (1966); Restatement of Torts, Second, § 341. As noted by the California court in Brown v. Merlo, supra, its guest statute was similarly out of step with general tort law even before Rowland v. Christian, 69 Cal.2d 108, 70 Cal.Rptr. 97, 443 P.2d 561 (1968), where land possessors were held to owe a duty of due care to all social guests. See, 106 Cal.Rptr. at 395, fn. 6, 506 P.2d at 219, fn. 6; cf. Oettinger v. Stewart, 24 Cal.2d 133, 148 P.2d 19 (1944).
The guest statute itself does not reach a parental claim for lost services, companionship and society brought against a motor vehicle owner or operator based on injuries to a minor guest passenger caused by the driver’s ordinary negligence. Irlbeck v. Pomeroy, 210 N.W.2d 831 (Iowa 1973). Nor does it reach a person entering an unoccupied car, Puckett v. Pail-*703thorpe, supra, or a person outside a vehicle but transported by it, Samuelson v. Sher-rill, supra.
Many pre-existing immunities from ordinary negligence liability have been eliminated in Iowa. They include state tort immunity, chapter 25A, The Code, local government tort immunity, chapter 613A, The Code, and charitable immunity, Haynes v. Presbyterian Hosp. Ass’n, 241 Iowa 1269, 45 N.W.2d 151 (1950). Public policy in every area of our law except as to automobile guests plainly supports the common law principle which imposes liability for negligent injury to recipients of hospitality.
Thus I do not believe Brown v. Merlo, supra, is distinguishable on the basis California also has a statute recognizing the identical public policy.
The guest statute’s differential treatment of motor vehicle social guests cannot be squared with the law’s treatment of social guests elsewhere. The statute is arbitrary insofar as it singles out motor vehicle guests for loss of their common law rights of action.
Independent of this I agree with the California, Kansas and North Dakota courts that the generosity of a host does not itself constitute a rational basis for removing a guest’s protection for negligently inflicted injuries. It is repugnant to our concept of tort law to suggest it is reprehensible ingratitude for an injured person to seek to be made whole by the person whose negligence has caused his loss.
As demonstrated by the “collusion prevention” argument, most guests today are relatives, acquaintances and friends. The host in such situations is unlike the good Samaritan who extends hospitality to a stranger in need without expectation of reward. Most guests are not strangers to their hosts. They ride in motor vehicles from a spirit of reciprocal hospitality for mutual reasons involving companionship and friendship. The social benefit flows to the host as much as to the guest. Every driver or owner is probably at some time a motor vehicle guest. In fact we have said an owner can even be a guest in his own motor vehicle. Murray v. Lang, supra.
Hosts are usually as surprised and disappointed as their guests when they learn after an accident that the guest’s injury caused by the driver’s ordinary negligence must go uncompensated despite liability insurance. This discovery is more likely to be disruptive' of the spirit of reciprocal hospitality which fostered the guest relationship than the making of a claim.
The guest statute classification is unreasonable in its inclusion of relatives, acquaintances and friends in the same class as strangers where the purpose is relevant only to bar negligence claims by strangers. Therefore, insofar as based on the goal of protecting the good Samaritan, the statute is grossly over-inclusive and offends equal protection.
It might also be suggested the guest statute accomplishes a peculiar distortion of the message of the parable of the good Samaritan.
The good Samaritan or hospitality justification does not permit the arbitrary classification of motor vehicle guests differently than other guests, has outlived its reasons, and is inherently irrational under today’s conditions.
V. Collusion prevention. Similarly, the imputed legislative goal of collusion prevention is not rationally advanced by the guest statute. Its classification in this regard is over-inclusive, under-inclusive, and invidiously discriminatory.
The collusion-prevention rationale rests on a premise antithetical to the good Samaritan argument. Instead of treating guest claims as reprehensible ingratitude toward the host, it assumes guests and hosts will conspire to defraud the host’s liability insurer from a mutual desire to see that the guest is compensated for his *704injuries. The very fact these imputed legislative goals proceed from opposite premises points up the over-inclusiveness of the guest statute classification in relation to either purpose.
As a collusion-prevention measure the statute impermissibly sweeps within its ambit all guest claims based on ordinary negligence. Included are claims of honest guests, claims against honest hosts, claims where negligence exists in fact and even claims in behalf of persons, such as infants, incapable of collusion. See Horst v. Holtzen, supra, holding a 13 day-old child to be a guest. Because it does indiscriminately bar such claims, it is irrationally broad and denies equal protection to those wrongly included in the class.
It is under-inclusive because it assumes collusion is more likely to occur where ordinary negligence may be shown than otherwise. Yet the circumstances which will take a case out of the guest statute are susceptible of ready fabrication. A showing that the journey was motivated in part by a definite tangible benefit to the host requires less imagination than fabrication of facts showing ordinary negligence.
This is illustrated by the kinds of exceptions which our cases have recognized as sufficient to make the guest statute inapplicable. See, e. g., In re Estate of Ronfeldt, supra (passenger accompanied a friend on a trip to pick up water pipe); Zwanziger v. Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., supra (passenger accompanied driver because of driver’s apprehension over the weather); Morrow v. Redd, supra (passenger who met driver in a tavern, paid two dollars for gas and two dollars for the trip for a 15 mile ride); Bilbro v. Bilbro, supra (passenger agreed to share sister’s trip expenses and pay expenses for tires and repairs) ; Delay v. Kudart, supra (dictum-passenger not a guest if he rode in an auto to determine for driver if the engine and carburetor worked properly); McCrady v. Sino, supra (minor passenger rode in truck box to comfort ponies); Bodaken v. Logan, supra (passenger accompanied driver on shopping trip to help pick out nurse uniforms) ; Winter v. Moore, supra (passenger rode along to help shop for a joint wedding gift); Ritter v. Dexter, supra (passenger accompanied driver to help look for stolen fender skirts); Sieren v. Stoutner, supra (passenger accompanied driver to show him where some beer was located) .
There is nothing in the requirement of a showing of a definite tangible benefit to assure a lessening of opportunity for collusion. It is ho assurance of honesty.
In addition, as with the hospitality goal, the anti-collusion purpose does not justify classifying motor vehicle guests differently than social guests similarly situated. See Division IV.
Defendant’s argument that the family immunity doctrine supports the rationality of the anti-collusion goal is unconvincing. In Barlow v. Iblings, 261 Iowa 713, 156 N.W.2d 105 (1968), only passing reference was made to collusion prevention as a basis for parental immunity. The classification included all persons similarly situated, and the case’s recognition of parental immunity should remove rather than enhance the possibility of collusion in guest cases.
As a matter of fact there is no evidence motor vehicle guests are more likely to collude than other tort claimants. The Minnesota Supreme Court observed:
“It is true that some states have adopted guest 'statutes designed in part to prevent collusion, but we find nothing in the authorities to indicate that there is a danger of widespread perjury in jurisdictions such as ours, where passengers, who are usually on friendly terms with their drivers, are permitted to recover for ordinary negligence.” Balts v. Balts, 273 Minn. 419, 430-431, 142 N.W.2d 66, 73 (1966).
Our system of justice, correctly I believe, assumes the honesty of most people. It also assumes the ability of the adversary *705process, with its devices for testing credibility such as discovery, cross-examination, impeachment, the insight of juries, and penalties of perjury, to expose dishonesty.
Liability insurers are afforded additional protection by co-operation clauses in their policies which require the insured to co-operate as a condition precedent to the insurer’s liability. 8 Blashfield Automobile Law and Practice, supra, § 342.11 at 281 (“The co-operation clause is designed to prevent collusion and connivance between claimant and the insured '* * *.”). The possibilities of loss of insurance, loss of driver’s license, or higher premiums are additional special inducements to honesty of motor vehicle hosts.
I believe the line drawn to exclude motor vehicle guests from recovery based on the driver’s ordinary negligence is irrational because it does not bear a fair and substantial relation to the prevention of collusion. Hence the classification denies equal protection insofar as premised on that imputed legislative goal.
VI. The classification itself. In Brown v. Merlo, supra, the California Supreme Court concluded the irrationality of its guest statute was aggravated by exceptions which fortuitously would “stay the operation of the statute under a variety of diverse, illogical circumstances.” Id. 106 Cal.Rptr. at 391, 506 P.2d at 215. The court held that “Although in specific cases such statutory quirks may work to ameliorate the harsh consequences of the general provision, these numerous exceptions when viewed in toto produce an absurd and illogical pattern which completely drains the statute of any rationality it might conceivably claim.” Kansas similarly noted what it referred to as its “crazy-quilt pattern of application of the guest act” which it held “clearly show[s] the inequities of the statute and the resulting denial of equal justice to persons similarly situtated.” Henry v. Bauder, supra 518 P.2d at 367.
I would reach the same conclusion regarding the classification demonstrated in our interpretations of the statute mentioned in Division I, supra. Like the author of a law review article on the Florida statute I might be inclined to attribute the confusion, injustices and difficulties to the judiciary rather than the legislature were it not for the fact other states with similar statutes have had precisely the same experience. See Tipton, Florida’s Automobile Guest Statute, supra, at 299.
Analysis of our cases confirms the statement in Olson v. Hodges, supra, that “there is no profit in the dissection of precedents.” I am persuaded this is because of the artificiality of the attempted statutory classification rather than because of material differences in the cases. Circumstances which determine whether a passenger is a guest or not are so fortuitous and otherwise insignificant in ordinary human affairs that absurd and seemingly inconsistent results have proved inevitable.
Therefore, whatever legislative purpose may have been hidden in the mind of the legislature which enacted the Iowa guest statute, the statute has operated in such an erratic way as to prevent rational classification.
VII. Judicial responsibility. We are all aware of the delicate balance required of courts in constitutional adjudication. On the one side are considerations of usual legislative prerogative in matters of public policy. Under those considerations the separation of powers concept demands judicial deference. On the other side are considerations of judicial responsibility to safeguard rights assured the people by the federal and state constitutions. Under those considerations the separation of powers concept demands judicial interference.
With due respect to the majority view, I believe this is an exceptional case requiring judicial intervention.
I do not believe the arguments against the guest statute are answered by counting the states which still have them but do *706point out that, contrary to the statement from Hessler v. Ford, 255 Iowa 1055, 1059, 125 N.W.2d 132, 134 (1963), quoted with approval in the majority opinion, only 22 states still have guest statutes. No state has enacted one since 1939. Several have fallen.
Iowa now has the nation’s oldest guest statute. Connecticut and Oregon also enacted guest statutes in 1927. Malcolm, Automobile Guest Law, § 3 at 2 (1937). The Connecticut statute was repealed in 1937. Conn.Gen.Stat. § 340(E) (Supp.1939). The Oregon statute was held unconstitutional in Stewart v. Houk, 127 Or. 589, 271 P. 998 (1928). A new Oregon statute was enacted in 1929. Vermont repealed its guest statute in 1970, and Florida repealed its statute in 1972. 5 Blashfield Automobile Law and Practice, § 211.3 (Third Ed. 1966, 1973 Supp.). Kentucky’s statute was held unconstitutional in Ludwig v. Johnson, 243 Ky. 533, 49 S.W.2d 347 (1932); California’s statute was Held unconstitutional in Brown v. Merlo, supra; Kansas’ guest statute was held unconstitutional in Henry v. Bauder, supra; and North Dakota’s statute was held unconstitutional in Johnson v. Hassett, supra. See notes, 23 Drake L.Rev. 216 (1973); 4 Memphis State L.Rev. 197 (1973); 49 Notre Dame Lawyer 446 (1973).
I believe the recent California, Kansas and North Dakota decisions, all striking guest statutes on equal protection grounds, demonstrate appropriate sensitivity to the task of responsible constitutional analysis, are well reasoned, and are persuasive authority for striking the Iowa statute on the same basis.
For the reasons given, not involving any mere question of public policy, I would hold the Iowa guest statute, Code §’ 321.-494, violates the equal protection guarantees of Article I, § 6, Iowa Constitution, and Amendment 14, United States Constitution. In doing so I do not dispute the legislative right to regulate motor vehicle liability but maintain such regulation may not infringe constitutional safeguards.
The classification in the guest statute which protects owners or operators of motor vehicles from some passenger claims based on the driver’s ordinary negligence treats such passengers differently than other persons similarly situated, does not bear a fair and substantial relation to any reasonably conceivable legislative purpose for the statute, and is inherently irrational. The guest statute is thus invidiously discriminatory and cannot be squared with the constitutional assurance of equal protection of the laws.
I would reverse the trial court.
MASON, RAWLINGS and REY-NOLDSON, JJ., join in this dissent.