Court Opinion

ID: 9576856
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:29:24.450884+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:19:34.434312
License: Public Domain

SIMMS, Vice Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I am compelled to strongly dissent. As I understand the rationale of the majority opinion, the primary reason for abrogating the well established doctrine of parental immunity in torts is the existence of compulsory liability insurance. Of primary importance here is the fact that the accident giving rise to this purported cause of action occurred on March 19, 1976. As the majority correctly points out, compulsory insurance did not become the law of Oklahoma until December 11, 1976, well past the time this cause of action allegedly arose.
It is clear, therefore, that the majority’s reliance on the existence of compulsory insurance as a reason to abrogate the parental immunity doctrine is completely misplaced under the facts of this case.
*1372If the majority is determined to overturn the law of Oklahoma, settled since statehood, and hold that a parent may be liable in tort to his children, I feel constrained to make the following observations.
The mere existence of liability insurance does not automatically remove the inherent danger to the parent-child relationship and family harmony in such a situation.
In the very recent decision of Ard v. Ard, Fla., 414 So.2d 1066 (1982), the Florida court ruled that an unemancipated minor child could bring suit against his mother for damages sustained because of her alleged negligence in unloading him from a motor vehicle, but only to the extent of mother’s insurance coverage. I am persuaded by the rationale of the dissenting opinion by Justice Boyd 1
“Parental abuse or neglect may be a ground for state intervention in appropriate proceedings, but ordinary negligence can take so many forms that we should not allow a tort action against a parent on behalf of a child.
“The principal reason for parental immunity is to prevent the disruption of family unity and harmony. Such disruption would inevitably follow if tort actions for ordinary negligence were allowed to be brought against a parent by his or her child. The Court majority reasons that if the parent has insurance covering his liability to the child for negligence, then in a suit by the child against the parent their interests do not conflict but converge. I disagree. Being on opposite sides of a lawsuit puts people in an adversary position. For one thing, a liability insurer is entitled to expect its insured to behave in an adversary manner towards the injured plaintiff. Therefore, the interests of parent and child in such a situation conflict in a very real way. “Parents may insure against the possibility of injuries to their children. They may seek financial protection from the consequences of accidental injuries in the form of hospitalization, casualty, and disability insurance coverages. It is awkward and unnecessary for parents to seek such financial protection in the form of liability insurance covering the parents. The infinite range of possible accidents that will inevitably happen during a child’s minority, and which are inextricably intertwined with parental conduct both reasonable and negligent, does not allow for a rational process of delineating rules and standards of parental care.”
Even the majority in Ard admitted the basic soundness of the family harmony argument: “Protecting the family unit is a significant public policy behind parental immunity. We are greatly concerned by an intrusion that might adversely affect the family relationship. Litigation between family members would be such an intrusion.”
The threat to the unity and harmony of the family and the danger of fraud and collusion seem very real and obvious to me.
Justice McFarland of the Arizona Supreme Court expressed these fears very well in his forceful dissent in Streenz v. Streenz, 106 Ariz. 86, 471 P.2d 282 (1970), stating:
“ T am forced to dissent because there has been presented no persuasive authority that the cure proposed by the majority is not worse than the disease.
The single question presented in this case is simple enough: should an un-emancipated child be permitted to maintain a cause of action against its parents for damages resulting from the parents' tortious conduct. Although this is an automobile negligence case, the striking down of the immunity doctrine is not limited to this field. The implications in the majority opinion make it plain that *1373the area they have opened is analogous to Gertrude Stein’s famous Rose; a tort is a tort is a tort. If the immunity from suit is removed for an automobile tort, it follows logically that it is removed for all negligent acts — for example, those which may occur in the sanctity of the home. Needless to say, the “sanctity” also includes the “secrecy” of the home.
A vacuum cleaner forgetfully kept near an entrance; a open, live toaster wire carelessly ignored by the do-it-yourself father; a teakettle or pot of boiling water unthinkingly left within the reach of a toddler, all become the elements of a suit by the infant child against his parents. It takes but little imagination to conceive of almost unlimited examples. Liability lurks in every corner of the household. And when tragedy strikes through the inadvertent, but nevertheless tortious, hand of the child’s parent (let us say the father), that same parent must decide — or at least participate in a family decision — whether or not suit should be instituted for the benefit of the child. The father must decide whether his duties as a father compel him to pass upon the possibility of a recovery against himself for accidental injuries to his child of tender years and take the child to some one to act as guardian ad litem to bring the suit against himself. The father must then assume the role of defendant and, presumably, assist in good faith in the defense of the suit in accordance with the terms of the “cooperation clause” of his insurance policy.’ ”
As this Court is painfully aware, we live in a litigious time. Adding parents and their children to the list of those who may play the tort lawsuit game does not seem to me to be a good idea. I am afraid that whatever good, if any, might come of this opinion will be solidly outweighed by the harm resulting from it.
Few courts have considered the effect upon the volume of insurance claims and the possibility of an increase in rates or of exclusion of the risk. Perhaps that is because such issues involve a fact-finding pursuit more suitable for the legislative branch than the judicial.
One of the dissenting opinions in Plumley v. Klein, 388 Mich. 1, 199 N.W.2d 169 (1972) expressed concern over the attitude underlying the trend away from the parental immunity doctrine, the “let ’em sue if there is insurance” philosophy. In another bitter dissent to the Plumley majority, Justice Black wrote: “I suppose the majority has concluded that a little tampering with family tranquility is not too great a price to pay for the great benefaction of friendly intramural lawsuits at the expense of the premium-paying public.”
The law imposes a duty to rear and discipline children, and parents must be given a wide sphere of discretion. If we allow an exception from the doctrine of parental immunity for automobile negligence cases involving insurance, there is no rational legal theory which could long maintain those limits on suits against parents. Parents and families would then have no protection from tort liability for exercising their parental discretion.
I am not convinced that the existence of a source of money is, in and of itself, sufficient good reason to create a cause of action where none existed before. It appears to me that the tail is wagging this dog.
Whether abrogation of parental immunity for torts is an idea whose time has now come, is a legislative decision and we should leave it to the Legislature to sort through the many policy considerations which should play a role in this decisioh.
I am authorized to state that Justice HARGRAVE joins with me in the views expressed above.

. Also see the dissenting opinion in Nocktonick v. Nocktonick, 227 Kan. 758, 611 P.1d 135 (1980).