Question: Is the lack of a driver’s license or a motorcycle endorsement admissible evidence that that person was somehow negligent in causing a collision?
Answer: No. There must also be some evidence of a causal connection between the lack of license/endorsement and the injury. The violation of a statutory duty is not actionable negligence unless it is also the proximate cause of the injury. The violation of a statute raises no liability for injury to another unless the injury was in some manner the result of such violation. In order to find that an injury was the proximate result of a statutory violation, the injury must have been a foreseeable consequence of the violation and would not have occurred if the requirements of the statute had been observed. In the same vein, mere lack of an operator’s license is not in itself evidence of negligence in the operation of the motor vehicle unless there is some causal connection between the injury and the failure to have the license. Unless a causal connection between the injuries and the failure to have a license is shown, the lack of a license is immaterial. Absent some evidence of a causal connection between the lack of license and the injury, evidence of the lack of license is immaterial.
