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Johnson v. Skinner6/19/1990
Defendants' first two assignments of error concern the liability of Green and Toyota based on their violation of a statute. The parties stipulated that defendant Skinner had been negligent in his operation of the automobile. Concerning the liability of Green and Toyota, the case went to the jury based on an alleged violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-79(d) (1987), which at the time of the accident provided:
No manufacturer or dealer in motor vehicles, trailers or semi-trailers shall cause or permit any such vehicle owned by such person or by any person in his employ, which is in the personal use of such person or employee, to be operated or moved upon a public highway with a "dealer" plate attached to such vehicle.
Id. (A 1989 amendment, effective 1 October 1989, rewrote subsection (d). The amendment is not applicable to this litigation. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-79 (1989)). Violation of this statute could result in a misdemeanor conviction and the imposition of a fine of not less than $100 or more than $1,000. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-79(a). The trial judge determined that the statute was a safety statute and violation of it, negligence per se.
First, Green argues that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-79(d) does not apply to him because he is not a "manufacturer" or "dealer" in motor vehicles. His argument is unconvincing. Toyota is a corporation, an artificial entity, which cannot itself actually "cause or permit" the attachment of dealer tags in violation of the statute. For a corporate dealer like Toyota to violate N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-79(d), some agent or employee must cause or permit the attachment of the tags. Green, as an individual and an agent of Toyota and with the knowledge and permission of the corporation, attached the tags to his personal automobile. In this context, the statute applies.
All defendants next argue that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-79(d) is not a safety statute. The trial court instructed that a violation of the statute would constitute "negligence within itself." Defendants contend the statute is only a revenue measure, and a violation of the statute therefore is not negligence per se. Defendants note that courts in other jurisdictions have found dealer tag statutes to be revenue, rather than safety statutes. Combron v. Cogburn, 116 Ga. App. 373,
157 S.E.2d 534 (1967); Burke v. Auto Mart, 37 N.J. Super. 451, 117 A.2d 624 (1955). Nevertheless, North Carolina courts have expressly stated that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-79(d) is a safety statute. In Kraemer v. Moore, 67 N.C. App. 505, 313 S.E.2d 610, review denied, 311 N.C. 758, 321 S.E.2d 137 (1984), Judge Braswell wrote:
Many jurisdictions, including North Carolina and now Massachusetts, have safety statutes which make it unlawful for a dealer to permit any person or employee to operate a vehicle for personal use with a "dealer" tag plate attached.
Kraemer at 508, 313 S.E.2d at 612-613. This language is clear and unambiguous and not an inadvertent use of the term "safety" as defendants suggest.
Defendants' next assignment of error presents the main and very difficult issue in this case -- the proximate cause of the accident. They contend that illegally lending a dealer tag to an employee which facilitates the use of an automobile cannot be the proximate cause of a subsequent accident. They urge, as a matter of law, that the violation of the dealer tag statute cannot be the proximate cause of plaintiff's
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