Starkweather v. Hession

PULLEN, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered against the defendants. The only question involved is whether or not at the time of the accident John Stark-weather, one of the plaintiffs, was or was not a guest of Jess Hession, Jr., the driver of the car involved in the accident, within the meaning of the so-called guest law.

The trial court held that Starkweather was not a guest. This holding is challenged in this appeal as being unsupported by the evidence. The facts of the case are substantially as follows:

In 1934 the football game between Stanford University and the University of California was to be played at Berkeley on the 24th of November. At that time plaintiff John Stark-weather and defendant Jess Hession, Jr., were students in the Sacramento schools. The boys were friends of several years’ standing, and prior to this trip they, together with

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several other young men about their age, had tentatively arranged a trip to Berkeley for the purpose of seeing the football game. They originally planned to make the trip by river boat, but that plan was abandoned. It was then that Stark-weather and Hession, Jr., arranged to drive to Berkeley in the automobile of Mr. Hession, Sr., the father of defendant, provided that the son could secure permission from his father to use the car. Permission was obtained, and on the morning of November 24th, the two young men started out by automobile for Berkeley and with a credit card belonging to the father which he had given to his son for the purchase of the necessary gas and oil. A third person accompanying the boys on the way to Berkeley paid the toll charge at the Carquinez bridge. After arriving in Berkeley Hession, Jr., filled the gas tank, using the credit card given him by his father. The boys saw the game, but were not together that night nor the following day. On Monday morning, November 26th, they left Berkeley to go to San Francisco. The testimony shows that before starting it was agreed that one would pay the ferry toll one way and the other the return toll.

Shortly after starting their trip to San Francisco in the Hession automobile, with Hession, Jr., driving, the car was involved in a collision, resulting in an injury to John Stark-weather. It was conceded at the trial that the accident was caused by negligence on the part of the driver of the Hession car.