Negligence–Assumption of Risk and Contributory Negligence–Abolition of Assumption of Risk as a Defense Separate From a Contributory Negligence in Autobmobile Guest-Host Situations NEGLIGENCE IN AUTOMOBILE GUEST-HOST SITUATION

Plaintiff, a guest in an automobile driven by defendant, was injured when defendant’s vehicle collided with another car. In plaintiff’s suit against defendant and her insurer the jury found that defendant was causally negligent as to management and control and position on the highway, and that plaintiff was causally negligent as to lookout. After apportioning 85 percent of the negligence to defendant and 15 percent to plaintiff, the jury found that plaintiff had assumed the risk with respect to defendant’s management and control and position on the highway, and the trial court therefore entered judgment dismissing the complaint. On appeal, held, reversed. In Wisconsin, hereafter, an automobile driver owes to his guest the same duty of ordinary care that he owes to others; a guest’s assumption of risk, previously implied from his willingness to proceed in the face of a known hazard, is no longer a defense apart from contributory negligence; and if a guest’s exposure of himself to a particular hazard is unreasonable and a failure to exercise ordinary care for his own safety, such conduct constitutes negligence, and is subject to the provisions of the state’s comparative negligence statute.McConville v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 113 N.W.2d 14 (Wis. I 962) .