99-3326 Stehlik v. Rhoads

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An ATV owner cannot be held liable for failing to require adult users of the ATV to wear a safety helmet.

Plaintiff sustained serious head injuries while operating defendant’s ATV with defendant’s permission, at a party at defendant’s home. Plaintiff was not wearing one of the available helmets, but stipulates that if he had been, he would not have sustained any serious head injury.

The jury in this case should not have been asked to determine whether the defendants were negligent in failing to require plaintiff to wear a safety helmet, or to engage in a separate comparison of helmet negligence as between plaintiff and the defendants. The circuit court properly struck those questions from the jury verdict in this case.

But because the verdict in this case was based upon the seat belt defense principles, which we have now modified for purposes of the helmet defense, we reverse and remand for a new trial on the issue of liability only.

Reversed and cause remanded.

Appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court for Washington County, Ziegler, J., Sykes, J.

Attorneys:

For Appellant: Douglas B. Keberle, West Bend; Owen Thomas Armstrong, Jr., Milwaukee

For Respondent: Joseph J. Voelker, James O. Conway, Sheboygan; John U. Schmid, Laurie E. Meyer, Paul F. Graves, Milwaukee