Dziura v. California Aviation Service, Inc.

I dissent.

It is true that the instruction'on willful misconduct delivered by the court was defective in failing to state that contributory negligence is not generally a defense to a claim based upon willful misconduct. (Williams v. Carr (1968) 68 Cal.2d 579 [68 Cal.Rptr. 305, 440 P.2d 505].) But in my view *203the failure correctly to explain the effect of willful misconduct was not prejudicial where the evidence would not have supported a verdict on that theory. Wanton or willful misconduct “implies the intentional doing of something either with knowledge, express or implied, that serious injury…