Court Opinion

ID: 9618331
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:10:55.661784+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:28.656500
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION OF WAKATSUKI, J., WITH WHOM HAYASHI, J., JOINS
I respectfully dissent.
In my view, the injury sustained by appellee did not arise out of the operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle. Appellee’s only injury consists of a wound resulting from a gunshot fired from *437a passing vehicle. The injury obviously was not sustained by the use of either automobile. If the appellee, in response to the firing of a gun, or after being hit by the gunshot, sustained injuries from a resulting crash of his vehicle, it would be fair to argue that his injuries arose out of the operation and use of his vehicle. Here, although both the assailant and the appellee were in moving automobiles at the time of the shooting, it was the gunshot and not the automobiles driven by the assailant and appellee that caused the injury. Moreover, there is no evidence that the shooting occurred due to assailant’s or appellee’s operation or use of their respective automobiles. The operation and use of the vehicles were merely incidental to the primary cause of the injury.
The only factor the majority offers to support its summary conclusion that the injury arose out of the operation or use of the vehicles is that both the assailant and appellee were occupying moving vehicles at the time of the incident. This does not demonstrate, however, that the injury sustained by the gunshot was causally related to the use or operation of either vehicle. For coverage to be warranted, the automobiles must serve as more than merely the situs of the events. See Continental Western Insurance Co. v. Klug, 394 N.W.2d 872, 874-75 (Minn. Ct. App. 1986).
Finally, I find nothing in the legislative history of the no-fault law to suggest that our legislature, in “creat[ing] a system of reparations for accidental harm and loss arising from motor vehicle accidents,” HRS § 294-l(a) (emphasis added), intended to cover a gun-inflicted injury not causally connected to the operation, maintenance, or use of automobiles. Being shot at by a passing motorist is obviously not a natural or foreseeable risk of operating or using an automobile. See Continental Western, 394 N.W.2d at 875.
I would reverse the judgment granting no-fault and uninsured motorist benefits to appellee.