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Hack v. Nester11/9/1990
JUSTICE WHITING delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this appeal of a motor vehicle collision case, we deal with the dispositive issues of negligent entrustment and punitive damages.
Approximately 5:45 p.m. on January 21, 1988, Robert Wayne Hack received Kathryn Marie Golden Weaver's permission to drive her Chevrolet Suburban to Louisa. After arriving in Louisa, Hack consumed most of a pitcher of beer. About 7:15 p.m., while proceeding in an easterly direction on Route 33, Hack rounded a curve and drove into the westbound lane, where he struck an approaching
Nissan car driven by Lisa Hicks Nester. Nester was killed as a result of the collision.
James E. Nester, Jr., Administrator of Nester's estate (the administrator), brought this wrongful death action to recover compensatory and punitive damages from Hack and compensatory damages from Weaver. Hack admitted that his negligence caused Nester's death; however, the issues of Weaver's liability and the amount of damages to be assessed against each party were submitted to a jury.
On May 12, 1989, a jury returned verdicts of $280,000 in compensatory damages against Hack and Weaver, and $50,000 in punitive damages against Hack. On September 11, 1989, judgment was entered on the verdicts.
Hack and Weaver appeal. Because the administrator prevailed in the trial court, consonant with familiar appellate principles, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to him.
NEGLIGENT ENTRUSTMENT
The administrator claims that Weaver is liable for Nester's death because Weaver negligently entrusted her vehicle to Hack. An owner (entrustor) who entrusts his motor vehicle to another person (entrustee) may be liable in some circumstances to a third party who is injured because of the entrustee's negligence. As we said in Denby v. Davis, 212 Va. 836, 838, 188 S.E.2d 226, 229 (1972), "the correct test of liability is whether the owner knew, or had reasonable cause to know, that he was entrusting his car to an unfit driver likely to cause injury to others." The administrator bases his negligent entrustment claim upon the following four factors.
First, Weaver knew that Hack had no driver's license when she entrusted her car to him. Hack's driver's license had been suspended in 1978 and again in 1984 for separate driving under the influence (DUI) convictions. Despite Weaver's denial of knowledge of these DUI convictions, there was sufficient conflicting evidence to support a jury finding that she knew of them.
Although it is negligence per se to entrust a motor vehicle to an unlicensed driver, Code § 46.1-386, there can be no recovery for negligent entrustment unless the reason for the entrustee's disqualification from securing a license was a proximate cause of
the collision. See Laughlin v. Rose, 200 Va. 127, 132-33, 104 S.E.2d 782, 786 (1958); cf. Denby (entrustor liable where reason for entrustee's disqualification for driver's license caused plaintiff's injury). Hack's last suspension expired several months before the collision. Therefore, Hack was eligible for reinstatement of his driver's license upon proof of financial responsibility and payment of a reinstatement fee. Code § 46.1-438(B) and (C). Here, as in Laughlin, there was no showing that the entrustee's lack of a license had any causal connection to the collision. Thus, Hack's lack of a driver's license provides no basis for recovery against Weaver.
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