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Crosby v. Hummell2/7/2003
No. 5664
I. INTRODUCTION
Sherie Crosby appeals from a judgment denying her claim for the wrongful death of her fifteen-year-old son, who was fatally injured in an accident while driving a friend's mother's car. Crosby alleged that her son's friend committed negligence per se by permitting an unlicensed person to drive in violation of AS 28.15.281(b). Crosby argues that the trial court erred by instructing the jury to consider all the elements needed to establish a violation of AS 28.15.281(b) when only one element was actually disputed, by denying her motion for summary judgment on the issue of permission to drive, and by excluding evidence of an admission by Normandy. Because we find no reversible error, we affirm the judgment.
II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
This appeal arises from a retrial after our remand in Ardinger v. Hummell. There we described the underlying facts as follows:
On the afternoon of December 4 several teenagers, including Joshua Van Bavel, age fifteen, and Normandy Hummell, age fourteen, agreed to meet later that night, after their parents were asleep, to drive around together. At approximately 1:30 or 2:00 a.m., Normandy took her mother's car keys without her mother's knowledge or permission, pushed the car down the driveway with a friend, Christina Kilborn, and drove to Joshua's house. The roads were icy, and Normandy had trouble handling the car. The girls found their friends, David Lakings and Joshua, at Joshua's mother's house and asked whether the boys wanted to go out as planned.
According to the testimony of Christina and David, Normandy was scared of driving and at first asked Joshua to drive her home so that she and Joshua could wait for David to pick them up in David's mother's vehicle. But on the way to the car, Normandy insisted that she wanted to drive. She and Joshua argued about who should drive. The keys were already in the ignition, and Joshua got into the driver's seat, which he refused to relinquish. While Joshua and Normandy continued to argue, Joshua drove the four teenagers to David's house where David and Christina stayed.
Coast Guard security officers spotted Joshua and Normandy as they continued on to Normandy's house. The officers observed the car lurching at a stop sign, as if the driver were having trouble with the clutch, and they decided to perform a welfare check to "make sure everything okay." The officers turned on their vehicle's blue flashing lights. As one of the officers approached Normandy's mother's car on foot, Joshua sped away. The officer estimated that Joshua accelerated to a speed of seventy miles per hour. Joshua lost control of the car and collided with a utility pole. The collision caused his death.[ ]
After the accident, Joshua's mother, Sherie Crosby (then Ardinger) sued Normandy Hummell, claiming that Normandy was liable under theories of negligent entrustment and negligence per se for permitting Joshua, an unlicensed driver, to drive her mother's car. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Normandy. On appeal, we reversed and remanded for a new trial, finding, among other things, that the jury should have been instructed to hold Normandy to an adult standard of care and should have been told that Normandy's conduct would be negligent per se if the jury found that she had violated AS 28.15.281(b), a provision of the motor vehicle code that makes it unlawful for a person in control of a motor vehicle to knowingly permit the vehicle to be driven by an unlicensed driver.
At the trial on remand, Crosby pursued only her claim of negligence per se, again contending that Normandy had violated AS 28.15.281(b) by allowin
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