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Ming v. Interamerican Car Rental9/2/2005
Ming, the personal representative of the estate of Robert Doyle, appeals from two final summary judgments, which determined no liability on the part of the two defendants below, Interamerican Car Rental, Inc., and Callie Robinson, in a wrongful death case. Interamerican rented a car to Robinson. She was the only authorized driver. On the day of the accident, Robinson's daughter, Leslie, drove the car to her mother's workplace. On the way, she struck and killed Doyle.
We reverse because this record presents material questions of fact regarding whether Leslie had Robinson's implied consent to drive the car and whether her use of the car constituted a conversion. This is bolstered because the two key actors in this case, Robinson and Leslie, made a number of conflicting statements and their credibility was at issue.
The record disclosed that Robinson owned several vehicles, including a Mazda, a Cadillac, a Pontiac, two Dodge Caravans, and two older Chevrolets. She permitted Leslie to drive the Mazda and the Cadillac. Leslie lived for a time with her boyfriend after her driver's license was revoked because of a drug offense. Leslie testified she let her boyfriend's sister and others drive her in the Cadillac.
At some point, Leslie moved back into her mother's home, which they also shared with her brother, Landon. She was on probation at the time of the accident. When asked if she ever drove one of her mother's cars after losing her license, she admitted she would occasionally "sneak around the block." Her brother was aware of this and he told Robinson about it. Robinson told Leslie: "You know you ain't got no license, you don't need to be driving."
A few weeks before the accident, Robinson rented the car involved in the accident from Interamerican, to use for work because her other cars were not in working order. She never gave Leslile or Landon express permission to use the rental car, nor did she expressly prohibit them from using it. She normally had the keys in her purse, or put them on the top of her dresser.
On the day of the accident, Robinson could not find her keys. She asked Leslie and Landon if they had seen them. When no one could find them, Robinson rode to work with a neighbor.
Leslie found the keys, but her statements and Robinson's are conflicting as to where. In her examination under oath, Leslie said she found them in her mother's bathroom. In her deposition, she testified she looked in the bathroom for the keys but could not find them. She did find them on her mother's bed "under the covers and stuff." Robinson testified Leslie told her she found the keys in her bathroom. In her deposition, Robinson said Leslie told her she found the keys under the dust ruffle under the foot of the bed.
Leslie testified she decided to drive the car to her mother's place of work so that her mother could drive to lunch and home from work. Robinson testified Leslie told her she was bringing the rental car to her so that she could keep a doctor's appointment that afternoon. Robinson agreed that she had a doctor's appointment that day, but an affidavit from the doctor's office asserted she did not.
At the accident scene, Leslie pretended to the police to be her sister and produced her sister's driver's license. According to the police report, Robinson's written statement identified her as both the renter of the car and the driver. Robinson's written statement given to the police alleged: "I was driving down 192 a little man tryed to cross the road I put on brakes he ran into the tire the little fellow was o.k." In a discovery response, Robinson alleged she wrote the statement "verbatim, based on what her daughter.
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