Ransburg v. Richards

NAJAM, Judge,

dissenting..I respectfully dissent. The majority opinion nullifies a valid private agreement, rewrites the lease, and reallocates the exchange of costs and benefits between the parties. The majority declares that the exculpatory clause in question is void and unenforceable because it "contravenes long established common law rules of tort liability" and "offends the public policy of the state." In making this new rule the majority assumes what it seeks to prove, namely, that the law of negligence and the law of contract occupy mutually exclusive spheres and cannot be reconciled on…