Opinion ID: 2654309
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Immunity Statutes

Text: For the better part the 20th century, California case law held that a person who furnished alcoholic beverages to another person was not liable for any damages resulting from the latter’s intoxication. (Cole v. Rush (1955) 45 Cal.2d 345; Fleckner v. Dionne (1949) 94 Cal.App.2d 246; Hitson v. Dwyer (1943) 61 Cal.App.2d 803; see also Lammers v. Pacific Electric Ry. Co. (1921) 186 Cal. 379 [dictum].) The Legislature acquiesced in these decisions, also known as dramshop laws, by declining to enact a contrary statutory scheme that would permit civil liability (Cole, supra, at p. 355 [noting the Legislature’s failure to change the law despite making numerous other statutory changes “is indicative of an intent to leave the law as it stands in the aspects not amended”]), although it enacted legislation making the selling or furnishing of an alcoholic beverage to an obviously intoxicated person a misdemeanor in 1953 (former § 25602).6 This court first departed from the general common law rule of nonliability in 1971 when, noting the trend in a majority of other states, we ruled that a vendor could be liable for selling alcoholic beverages to an obviously intoxicated person who thereafter inflicted injury on third persons. (Vesely v. Sager, supra, 5 Cal.3d 153.) Overruling Cole v. Rush, Vesely held that furnishing alcohol to an already intoxicated person could be the proximate cause of an injury to a third person on a 6 Prior to 1978, section 25602 provided: “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.” (Stats. 1953, ch. 152, § 1, pp. 954, 1020.) The same language now appears in subdivision (a) of the same statute. (Stats. 1978, ch. 929, § 1, pp. 2903-2904.) 7 showing that the person furnishing the alcohol violated section 25602, the misdemeanor statute enacted in 1953. (Vesely, supra, at pp. 165-167.) Five years later, in Bernhard v. Harrah’s Club, supra, 16 Cal.3d 313, this court broadened the scope of potential liability. Bernhard involved a commercial vendor in Nevada that furnished alcohol to a California resident who then proceeded to injure another California resident while driving drunk in California. The defendant in Bernhard, a Nevada corporation, argued that because the misdemeanor statute had no extraterritorial effect, it was entitled to immunity. (Bernhard, supra, at p. 323.) Although our decision in Vesely v. Sager, supra, 5 Cal.3d 153, had relied on section 25602 for its analysis, Bernhard read Vesely in broader terms: “Although we chose to impose liability on the Vesely defendant on the basis of his violating the applicable statute, the clear import of our decision was that there was no bar to civil liability under modern negligence law. Certainly, we said nothing in Vesely indicative of an intention to retain the former rule that an action at common law does not lie.” (Bernhard, supra, at p. 325.) Bernhard thus downplayed Vesely’s reliance on the criminality of serving an intoxicated person as the analytical linchpin of the modern rule permitting liability. Finally, in 1978, this court extended the Vesely holding to noncommercial social hosts, reasoning that a private person who serves alcohol in a noncommercial setting to an obviously intoxicated guest with the knowledge that person intends to drive a vehicle while in an intoxicated state fails to act with reasonable care. (Coulter v. Superior Court, supra, 21 Cal.3d at pp. 153-155 (plur. opn. of Richardson, J.); id. at p. 156 (conc. opn. of Mosk, J., joined by Bird, C. J.); id. at p. 157 (conc. & dis. opn. of Newman, J.).) As the plurality explained: “We think it evident that the service of alcoholic beverages to an obviously intoxicated person by one who knows that such intoxicated person intends to drive 8 a motor vehicle creates a reasonably foreseeable risk of injury to those on the highway. [Citation.] Simply put, one who serves alcoholic beverages under such circumstances fails to exercise reasonable care.” (Coulter, supra, at pp. 152-153.) The Legislature responded to this trilogy of cases in 1978 by expressly abrogating their holdings and largely reinstating the previous common law rule that the consumption of alcohol, not the service of alcohol, is the proximate cause of any resulting injury. This 1978 legislation took three forms, spread across both the Civil Code and the Business and Professions Code. First, although Civil Code former section 1714 had provided generally that everyone is responsible for his own negligent or willful acts, the Legislature amended that statute, placing the existing language in new subdivision (a) and adding subdivisions (b) and (c) to qualify that general principle. New subdivision (b) of Civil Code section 1714 provided: “It is the intent of the Legislature to abrogate the holdings in cases such as Vesely v. Sager (5 Cal. 3d 153), Bernhard v. Harrah’s Club (16 Cal. 3d 313), and Coulter 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.” (Stats. 1978, ch. 929, § 2, p. 2904.) Along these same lines, Civil Code section 1714, new subdivision (c) provided: “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.” (Stats. 1978, ch. 929, § 2, p. 2904.) 9 In the second change, the Legislature amended Business and Professions Code section 25602 to its current version by adding subdivisions (b) and (c). (Stats. 1978, ch. 929, § 1, p. 2904.) Section 25602, whose previous sole provision made it a misdemeanor to serve an obviously intoxicated person, now provided in subdivision (b) that “No 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] . . . 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.” Section 25602, new subdivision (c), like Civil Code section 1714, subdivision (b), expressly declared the Legislature’s intent to overrule Vesely, Bernhard, and Coulter. This “sweeping civil immunity” (Strang v. Cabrol (1984) 37 Cal.3d 720, 724) was intended “to supersede evolving common law negligence principles which would otherwise permit a finding of liability under the[se] circumstances” (id. at p. 725). The third prong of the legislative response to this court’s recognition of potential liability in alcohol cases authorized a “single statutory exception to the broad immunity created by the 1978 amendments.” (Strang v. Cabrol, supra, 37 Cal.3d at p. 723.) Newly enacted section 25602.1 (Stats. 1978, ch. 930, § 1, pp. 2904-2905), concerned underaged drinkers and authorized a cause of action against licensees (i.e., those licensed to sell alcohol by the Department of ABC; see § 23009) who sell, furnish, or give away alcoholic beverages to obviously intoxicated minors who later injure themselves or others.7 Subsequent case law 7 As added by the 1978 amendments, the original version of section 25602.1 stated: “Notwithstanding 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 (footnote continued on next page) 10 emphasized the narrowness of section 25602.1’s exception to the general rule of civil immunity for providers of alcohol: the exception applied only to licensees (Cory v. Shierloh (1981) 29 Cal.3d 430, 440 [noting in passing that nonlicensed sellers retained their immunity]), who provide alcohol to obviously intoxicated minors (see Rogers v. Alvas (1984) 160 Cal.App.3d 997, 1004). Providing alcohol to sober minors or to obviously intoxicated adults was not actionable under section 25602.1. (See Cory, supra, at p. 440 [“The obviously intoxicated minor, and those injured by him, retain a cause of action against the seller, but an adult consumer, and those similarly injured by him do not [citation]”].) Nor did the exception apply to vendors who were required to be licensed, but for some reason were not (ibid. [“A preferred liability status is thus given to those sellers who refuse to obtain licenses.”]), or to other nonlicensees (Baker v. Sudo (1987) 194 Cal.App.3d 936, 941-942 [no liability for a social host]; Zieff v. Weinstein (1987) 191 Cal.App.3d 243, 248 [same]). Following the 1978 amendments, two subsequent judicial decisions prompted further legislative refinement. First, in 1981, a minor who was injured when he became intoxicated at a party and crashed his car sued the party’s host claiming, among other things, the defendant engaged in “the unlicensed and unlawful sale and furnishing of alcoholic beverages to minors.” (Cory v. Shierloh, supra, 29 Cal.3d at p. 433.) When the trial court dismissed the case, citing the 1978 amendments that reestablished civil immunity, he appealed claiming the new (footnote continued from previous page) 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.” (Stats. 1978, ch. 930, § 1, p. 2905.) 11 laws were unconstitutional. (Id. at pp. 437-441.) This court upheld the new laws, despite noting the incongruity of conditioning liability on a defendant’s status as a licensee.8 (Cory, supra, at p. 440.) A few years later, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided a case involving a girl’s death in a drunk driving accident allegedly caused when a club operated by the United States Department of Defense at the Concord Naval Weapons Station served alcohol to an obviously intoxicated minor. The federal appellate court held the club was not liable under section 25602.1 because it was not a licensed liquor provider under California law. (Gallea v. United States (9th Cir. 1986) 779 F.2d 1403.) As recognized by these two cases, persons who refused to obtain a liquor license and establishments permitted to serve alcohol on military bases without a license retained full immunity from liability. In response to these two judicial decisions, the Legislature in 1986 amended section 25602.1 to its current version, specifically to overrule Cory v. Shierloh in part and Gallea v. United States in full. (See Assem. Com. on Judiciary, Analysis of Sen. Bill No. 1053 (1985-1986 Reg. Sess.) as amended Jan. 13, 1986, pp. 2-3.)9 A Senate committee report suggested the original law’s distinction between licensees and those sellers without licenses who were required by law to be licensed “may not have been foreseen or intended by the 8 Accordingly under section 25602.1 as enacted in 1978, “whether or not the selling or supplying of the liquor is a tortious cause of a resultant injury turns on the license status of the supplier and the age of the consumer. Causation in a common law sense, whether actual or physical, proximate or legal, has never pivoted on such a perilous and seemingly irrelevant fulcrum.” (Cory v. Shierloh, supra, 29 Cal.3d at p. 440.) 9 We grant defendant’s request for judicial notice of the legislative history of the 1986 amendments to section 25602.1. (In re Reeves (2005) 35 Cal.4th 765, 777, fn. 15; Elsner v Uveges (2004) 34 Cal.4th 915, 929, fn. 10.) 12 Legislature.” (Sen. Com. on Judiciary, Analysis of Sen. Bill No. 1053 (1985-1986 Reg. Sess.) as amended Jan. 13, 1986, p. 4 (Senate Analysis).) Significantly, both the Assembly and Senate committees involved in the 1986 amendment indicated the bill would not change existing law with regard to social hosts who provide alcoholic beverages free to their guests. (See Sen. Analysis, supra, at p. 4 [“The bill would not . . . affect the existing immunity for social hosts as it would not impose any liability for the free furnishing of alcohol.”].) Section 25602.1’s exception to immunity now embraces those required to be licensed and those who sell alcohol on military bases. In addition, the Legislature excepted from the rule of civil immunity “any other person” who sells alcohol to an obviously intoxicated minor. In sum, if a plaintiff can establish the defendant provided alcohol to an obviously intoxicated minor, and that such action was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries or death, section 25602.1—the applicable statute in this case— permits liability in two circumstances: (1) the defendant was either licensed to sell alcohol, required to be licensed, or federally authorized to sell alcoholic beverages in certain places, and the defendant sold, furnished, or gave the minor alcohol or caused alcohol to be sold, furnished, or given to the minor; or (2) the defendant was “any other person” (i.e., neither licensed nor required to be licensed), and he or she sold alcohol to the minor or caused it to be sold. Whereas licensees (and those required to be licensed) may be liable if they merely furnish or give an alcoholic beverage away, a nonlicensee may be liable only if a sale occurs; that is, a nonlicensee, such as a social host, who merely furnishes or gives drinks away— even to an obviously intoxicated minor—retains his or her statutory immunity.10 10 Section 25602.1, as amended in 1986, provides in full: “Notwithstanding subdivision (b) of Section 25602, a cause of action may be brought by or on behalf (footnote continued on next page) 13