Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/160/997.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 14:40:08+00:00

Document:
NORENE ROGERS et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CHARLES F. ALVAS et al., Defendants and Respondents.
Thomas E. Lowman and Burriss, Lowman & Rice for Plaintiffs and Appellants.
Steven P. Cohn, Eric F. Hartman and Lariviere & Dickerson for Defendants and Respondents.
Plaintiffs appeal from a summary judgment for defendants in a personal injury action alleging defendants' liability as retail liquor dealers [160 Cal. App. 3d 999] in furnishing alcoholic beverages to a sober minor, who subsequently operated a motor vehicle while intoxicated and caused plaintiffs' injuries.
For purposes of these proceedings defendants have not disputed plaintiffs' factual allegations, and the matter has been presented as involving only the single legal issue of statutory immunity.
[1a] We conclude that licensed alcoholic beverage dealers who provide alcoholic beverages to sober minors are statutorily immune from claims by third parties injured as a result of the intoxication of those minors and uphold the judgment.
Sometime during the evening hours of January 12, 1979, defendants sold Timothy D., a then sober minor, a half gallon bottle of whiskey. Timothy then met with three other minor friends, and they all commenced drinking the whiskey. At some point past midnight Timothy obtained the keys to one of his companions' automobiles. In an intoxicated condition, Timothy drove the vehicle through the plaintiffs' house and struck plaintiff Norene Rogers, causing the injuries for which plaintiffs seek damages.
Defendants contend that Business and Professions Code sections 25602, fn. 1 25602.1 fn. 2 and Civil Code section 1714, fn. 3 as enacted and amended by the [160 Cal. App. 3d 1000] Legislature in 1978, establish a statutory scheme of total immunity for licensed alcoholic beverage dealers against plaintiffs' claims.
In 1978, the Legislature amended Business and Professions Code section 25602 by adding subdivision (b) and (c) (fn. 1, ante) and Civil Code section 1714 by adding subdivisions (b) and (c) (fn. 3, ante), and added section 25602.1 to the Business and Professions Code (fn. 2, ante). Defendants rely upon these amendments and the decision of our Supreme Court inCory v. Shierloh (1981) 29 Cal. 3d 430 [174 Cal. Rptr. 500, 629 P.2d 8] to support their position that plaintiffs have no cause of action against them.
Thereafter, in Burke v. Superior Court (1982) 129 Cal. App. 3d 570 [181 Cal. Rptr. 149], a divided Court of Appeal ruling on a factual situation virtually identical with the instant case imposed liability on a licensed vendor who sold alcohol to a sober minor, who then injured a third party. The Burke court held that neither Cory nor the 1978 amendments insulated a liquor dealer from such liability as a matter of law. Plaintiffs urge us to follow Burke's reasoning, but we respectfully decline.
 The primary rule of statutory construction is to determine legislative intent. (Moyer v. Workmen's Comp. Appeals Bd. (1973) 10 Cal. 3d 222, 231 [160 Cal. App. 3d 1002] [110 Cal. Rptr. 144, 514 P.2d 1224].) [1b] In this instance the Legislature has specifically declared its intent in Business and Professions Code section 25602, subdivision (c) (fn. 1, ante), and again in Civil Code section 1714, subdivision (b) (fn. 3, ante). In addition, the history of the 1978 amendments as they moved through the legislative process confirms our view that licensed vendors of alcoholic beverages have no liability under circumstances such as those at hand.
Thereafter the bill was amended June 15, 1977, January 9, 1978, January 19, 1978, August 14, 1978, August 23, 1978. The August 23 amended version provided, inter alia, that nonlicensees would have no liability for the sale or furnishing of alcoholic beverages, but maintained limited liability for licensed vendors. Senate Bill No. 1175 underwent one final revision in a conference committee on August 31, 1978. The final version, which was signed into law by the Governor, deleted all proposed amendments to Business and Professions Code section 25602, among which were provisions imposing liability on licensed vendors. It added, inter alia, section 25602.1 (fn. 2, ante) which, in turn, referred to section 25602 as amended by another bill, Senate Bill No. 1645.
On May 2, 1978, Senator Ayala introduced Senate Bill No. 1645, dealing with the same subject matter. It also sought to amend Business and Professions [160 Cal. App. 3d 1003] Code section 25602, as well as Civil Code section 1714. However, unlike Senate Bill No. 1175 which merely imposed certain restrictions and limitations upon recovery against licensed alcoholic beverage providers, Senate Bill No. 1645 sought to eliminate all such liability. It was amended once on May 17, 1978, to include reference to the Coulter decision in both statutes, to add subdivision (c) to Civil Code section 1714 in order to extend immunity to social hosts, to broaden the immunity under Business and Professions Code section 25602, subdivision (b), to actions by "any injured person or the estate of such person" instead of just "a third person" and, finally, to provide in subdivision (c) of section 25602, a legislative declaration of how the statute shall be interpreted in lieu of the originally proposed amendment expressing legislative intent. This version was enacted into law.
[4b] While we share the Cory court's concern about the nature and wisdom of the 1978 amendments, we also agree that those are decisions well within the province of the Legislature.
Low, P. J., and King, J., concurred.
FN 1. Business and Professions Code section 25602 states: "(a) Every person who sells, furnishes, gives, or causes to be sold, furnished, or given away, any alcoholic beverage to any habitual or common drunkard or to any obviously intoxicated person is guilty of a misdemeanor. [¶] (b) No person who sells, furnishes, gives, or causes to be sold, furnished, or given away, any alcoholic beverage pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section shall be civilly liable to any injured person or the estate of such person for injuries inflicted on that person as a result of intoxication by the consumer of such alcoholic beverage. [¶] (c) The Legislature hereby declares that this section shall be interpreted so that the holdings in cases such asVesely v. Sager (5 Cal.3d 153),Bernhard v. Harrah's Club (16 Cal.3d 313) andCoulter v. Superior Court (21 Cal.3d 144) be abrogated in favor of prior judicial interpretation finding the consumption of alcoholic beverages rather than the serving of alcoholic beverages as the proximate cause of injuries inflicted upon another by an intoxicated person."
FN 2. Business and Professions Code section 25602.1 states: "Nothwithstanding subdivision (b) of Section 25602, a cause of action may be brought by or on behalf of any person who has suffered injury or death against any person licensed pursuant to Section 23300 who sells, furnishes, gives or causes to be sold, furnished or given away any alcoholic beverage to any obviously intoxicated minor where the furnishing, sale or giving of such beverage to the minor is the proximate cause of the personal injury or death sustained by such person."
FN 3. Civil Code section 1714 states: "(a) Every one is responsible, not only for the result of his willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want or ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself. The extent of liability in such cases is defined by the Title on Compensatory Relief. [¶] (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to abrogate the holdings in cases such asVesely v. Sager (5 Cal.3d 153),Bernhard v. Harrah's Club (16 Cal.3d 313) andCoulter v. Superior Court (21 Cal.3d 144) and to reinstate the prior judicial interpretation of this section as it relates to proximate cause for injuries incurred as a result of furnishing alcoholic beverages to an intoxicated person, namely that the furnishing of alcoholic beverages is not the proximate cause of injuries resulting from intoxication, but rather the consumption of alcoholic beverages is the proximate cause of injuries inflicted upon another by an intoxicated person. [¶] (c) No social host who furnishes alcoholic beverages to any person shall be held legally accountable for damages suffered by such person, or for injury to the person or property of, or death of, any third person, resulting from the consumption of such beverages."
FN 4. At that time, Business and Professions Code section 25602 read: "Every person who sells, furnishes, gives, or causes to be sold, furnished, or given away, any alcoholic beverage to any habitual or common drunkard or to any obviously intoxicated person is guilty of a misdemeanor."

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