Court Opinion

ID: 9726395
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:47:37.422394+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:26.797473
License: Public Domain

Hallows, C. J.
(concurring). This case, rather than being a crutch for the nonfault concept in tort liability, is an argument for the doctrine of pure comparative negligence and points up at least two serious weaknesses in our present law. These weaknesses cause the injustice which is dramatically portrayed in this case. First, to recover, a plaintiff must be less guilty of negligence than either of the defendants, the city or the driver of the bus, against whom she seeks recovery. Under the pure comparative negligence concept she would recover 50 percent of her damages. If the law were changed to provide that a plaintiff could recover if he were not more negligent than all the defendants treated as a unit, the plaintiff would also recover one half of her damages of $90,000 and perhaps this appeal would have been avoided. No nonfault plan currently discussed in legal literature would help this case very much because recovery on the basis of no fault is restricted to $10,000.
The plaintiff has been found 50 percent negligent and in justice she should only be denied 50 percent of her damages. Likewise, the city and the bus company were each found 25 percent negligent. Why should not they in justice each pay 25 percent of the plaintiff’s damage?
*722The dissent is firm in its belief the apportionment of negligence is correct and there is no basis as a matter of law to believe a jury could find the plaintiff less negligent on a retrial; therefore, the unjust result must stand. I am more confident of the future and less certain the apportionment of negligence is correct on the facts. In respect to apportionment, I go beyond the majority opinion and add it to the reasons for a new trial.
For the reasons stated in my dissent in Vincent v. Pabst Brewing Co. (1970), 47 Wis. 2d 120, 177 N. W. 2d 513, the limited comparative negligence law of this state should be changed to allow a complete comparison of causal negligence and the bar of contributory negligence should be removed or at least the present law should be modified to avoid the injustice this case illustrates.