Manistee Bank & Trust Co. v. McGowan

An act of the Legislature provides that the owner of an automobile driven with permission is subject to liability if it is negligently driven and causes damage to property or injury or death to a person. The act further provides that neither the owner nor a driver is liable for injury or death caused a guest passenger by negligent driving.1

The act expressly permits a guest passenger, along with everyone else, to recover for grossly negligent driving. But this does not save the classification if it is otherwise unreasonable. To tell a person who cannot prove gross negligence, but can prove…