Mann v. Chase

WARD, J.

Plaintiff, as the only heir of Earl Robert Mann, who died of injuries received when an automobile in which he was riding as a guest struck an embankment and overturned, sued John E. Chase, a minor, driver of the car, Franklin D. Chase, its owner and the brother of John, and Mary C. Chase, their mother, who had signed John’s application for a driver’s license. The court found that the accident was the proximate result of the wilful misconduct of John Chase who was driving in an intoxicated condition, and judgment was rendered as follows: “From Defendant John F. Chase the sum of $10,500.00; from the defendant Franklin D. Chase, as provided in section 402 of the Vehicle Code of the State of California, the sum of $5,000.00, jointly and severally with said defendant John F. Chase; and from the defendant Mary C. Chase, as provided in section 352 of said Vehicle Code, the sum of $5,000.00, jointly and severally with said defendant John F. Chase; . . . ’’ Mrs. Chase and her son Franklin appeal. ‘

It will not be necessary herein to discuss the finding of wilful misconduct other than as it refers to the intoxication of John F. Chase, as the finding in that regard is sufficient to sustain the judgment.

On the night of the accident, respondent’s son, a young man twenty-two years of age, in company with John F. Chase and Robert Leslie Rodriguiz, both minors, left Berkeley in Alameda County to go to a swimming pool at Orinda, in the

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adjoining county of Contra Costa. On the way they stopped at a liquor store where, with money contributed by the three, Mann purchased two half-gallon jugs of beer, which he placed in the car being driven by John Chase, in which the three were riding. At the swimming pool, part of the beer was removed from the ear and consumed, Chase drinking some of it. There is evidence that with friends or acquaintances in another party, he also drank whiskey. Mann remained in the pool for the greater part of the time, but on several occasions he, too, drank of the beer. The three left the pool shortly after midnight and started their return trip to Berkeley, part of which took them over a road having many turns and a decided downgrade. On one of these curves, John Chase, swerving to avoid an oncoming car, to which his attention had been called by Rodriguiz, drove into an enbankment and the car overturned.