Guests & Passengers

Mrs. Stella H. Adamson was driving Dr. May E. Walker to the cottages which they jointly owned and rented at Lake Tahoe, Calif. Mrs. Adamson's rear tire treads were worn smooth. The pavements were wet. Suddenly the car skidded, slid, spun around, knocked down a telephone pole, ripped out 15 ft. of wire fence and came to a sickening stop in the ditch. Dr. Walker was hurled from her seat with such force that she was jammed jackknife fashion 25 in. through a 15-in. opening in the door.

Clifford Pierson ("Biff") Hoffman, famed onetime (1926-28) Stanford fullback, was driving his wife and their good friends, Mr. & Mrs. John McCann, in the Hoffman car on a weekend outing to Aptos, Calif. He was allegedly speeding down a tree-lined road at 60 m.p.h. when another car popped out at an intersection. They collided. Mrs. McCann was hurled out, suffered brain concussion, severe cuts & bruises.

Both accidents happened in 1934. Both were in the lower courts last year. Last week they were both the basis of unanimous and antipodal decisions of the California Supreme Court which may clarify for laymen many of the personal injury claims arising from the nation's annual 6,500,000 automobile accidents.

Like California, many U. S. States permit a paying passenger to recover for auto injuries caused by a driver's negligence, but limit non-paying passenger or guest recoveries to cases where the driver was grossly negligent or drunk. In both Walker v. Adamson and McCann v. Hoffman et al, the injured passengers had shared or were expected to share in the expenses of the trip. But, said California's Supreme Court, where the parties are ''engaged on a business venture for their mutual advantage," then sharing expenses makes a guest a paying passenger; whereas, when the main purpose of the auto trip is the joint pleasure of the participants, passengers are merely guests even if they share the expenses. This is "nothing more than the exchange of social amenities," is not "payment for the transportation." Affirmed the Court: Dr. Walker could recover the lower court's award of $25,000 damages from Partner Adamson; the Biff Hoffmans were not liable for the $31,237.65 damages claimed by the McCanns, good friends no longer.

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