Hathaway

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment rendered for defendant Lillian Grant in a suit brought for the recovery of damages for personal injuries.

This appeal presents but a single question, namely, whether the owner of an automobile is liable for the negligence of the driver committed while the owner was riding in the automobile at the invitation of the driver to whom the owner had loaned the automobile. The trial court gave judgment for plaintiff against the-driver, Neal Mathews, who was the owner’s co-defendant. Defendant Mathews testified that he telephoned the defendant Miss Grant the evening before the accident and asked if he could borrow her car the next day to go to the beach; that he went to her home the next morning about 7:30; that “Miss Grant was employed at the time at the Berendo Intermediate High School, located one block north of Pico and two blocks, I believe, beyond Vermont. When I arrived at the house she had her hat on coming out of the house. I told her I was coming and would take her. We got in the car together. I was driving the car. She told me over the telephone—the day before—that she would leave the key to the car by a certain tree in the yard, so that I…