# Cowgill, Adm'r v. Boock, Adm'r

> Oregon Supreme Court · May 16, 1950 · 189 Or. 282

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9543060

## Case

- **Full name:** COWGILL, Adm’r v. BOOCK, Adm’r
- **Court:** Oregon Supreme Court
- **Decided:** May 16, 1950
- **Citations:** 189 Or. 282; 218 P.2d 445; 19 A.L.R. 2d 405; 1950 Ore. LEXIS 182
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Latotjrette
- **Judges:** Belt, Rossman, Latotjrette, Lusk, Belt'S, Bailey, Brand
- **Cited by:** 97 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9543060

## Opinion text

LATOTJRETTE, J.,
specially concurring.
I concur in the opinion of Mr. Justice Belt because I believe that the reason for the rule of public policy in actions of this nature ceases to exist in so far as the facts in this case are concerned. The public policy doctrine is a wholesome one, in most eases involving torts between a father and his unemancipated son, but in the case at bar, it seems to me that when the drunken father commanded his son to ride with him on the fateful night and refused the son’s request to let him drive the automobile and went careening down the road in the manner indicated, being engaged in an unlawful act and bringing about the son’s untimely death, the harmony and tranquillity of the family unit then and there became emasculated. Cessante ratione legis, cessat et ipsa lex.
*309 The courts universally hold that an unemancipated son has a right of action against his father for misappropriation of the son’s property entrusted to the father. To reverse the judgment in this action, in the light of the facts, would be placing “property rights” over human rights. To this doctrine, I can not subscribe.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9543060. Public record. Not legal advice.