Court Rejects Drunk Driver's Comparative Negligence Defense
by
Joseph C. Maya on Apr. 10, 2017
Accident & Injury Accident & Injury Car Accident Criminal DUI-DWI
Summary: Blog post about the use of the comparative negligence defense when the defendant was drunk.
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Plaintiff passenger's two-count complaint against the defendant driver alleged negligence and recklessness that the passenger was in an automobile operated by the driver when the automobile struck a tree causing the passenger to suffer injuries, and that the driver was impaired by the consumption of intoxicating liquor and/or drugs. The passenger moved to strike the driver's first special defense of assumption of the risk.
The passenger's argument, that the defense of assumption of risk was abolished by Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-572h(b) and therefore should be struck, was rejected by the court since the driver specifically pled that the passenger was negligent in that he was a passenger in the defendant's motor vehicle when he knew or should have known by reasonable use of his faculties that said defendant was operating his vehicle while intoxicated. While the first special defense alleged some of the elements of an assumption of the risk defense, it adequately pled that the passenger's negligent acts lead to his injuries. As such, it stated the special defense of comparative negligence. The court denied the motion to strike.
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Source: Perry v. Tomany, 2001 Conn. Super. LEXIS 2469 (Conn. Super. LEXIS Aug. 28, 2001)