Swicegood v. Cooper

*180WEBB, JUSTICE.

The question posed by this appeal is whether the defendant’s evidence supported submitting to the jury an issue of contributory negligence based on negligent entrustment. Negligent entrustment occurs when the owner of an automobile “entrusts its operation to a person whom he knows, or by the exercise of due care should have known, to be an incompetent or reckless driver” who is “likely to cause injury to others in its use.” Heath v. Kirkman, 240 N.C. 303, 307, 82 S.E.2d 104, 107 (1954); Bogen v. Bogen, 220 N.C. 648, 650, 18 S.E.2d 162, 163 (1942). As a result of his own…