Opinion ID: 1403970
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the common law's causal barrier should be removed to create actionable claims for only three narrowly defined classes of intoxicated consumer

Text: The question before us today is whether the common-law causal barrier of voluntary ingestion should remain standing for claims by an intoxicated purchaser against the on-the-premises seller. [7] The gravamen of the tavernkeeper's immunity from civil liability is the common law's recognition that the imbiber's free will in ingesting liquor breaks the chain of causation and becomes the sole cause of harm. While I join in the court's refusal today to disturb this principle to benefit the uncoerced sui juris consumer, I would extend Brigance to allow actionable claims for only three narrowly defined classes of intoxicated consumer  all comprised of persons clearly unable to exercise free will: (1) those sui juris claimants whose will was overborne by duress, coercion or other wilful or grossly reckless misconduct, (2) those who were induced into imbibing by false misrepresentations that the potion was nonalcoholic or harmless and (3) those under legal disability  minors and mentally disabled  i.e., persons whose will the law recognizes as impaired by definition. My approach would leave largely unaltered the traditional common-law norms of civil accountability.
The common law distinguishes between one's exercise of a free will and one's acts from overborne will. A person is generally deemed to act with a free will and is considered responsible for harm which results from his (or her) voluntary intoxication. [8] This notion is founded on time-honored and widely-held Western tradition that people who voluntarily and knowingly drink excessive amounts of alcohol will their own destruction. On the other hand, the capacity for free action is effectively destroyed when one's free will (a) is overborne by the conduct of another which compels compliance with some demand by means of duress, coercion or threats [9] or (b) is impaired by false misrepresentations. I would make the common law's causal barrier uninvocable by those tavernkeepers (or their agents) who either (a) have overborne the sui juris buyer's will by wilful, oppressive or grossly reckless conduct or (b) have impaired it by falsely misrepresenting that the potion was harmless or nonalcoholic. Those classes of person clearly are dehors the protection affordable by the rationale underlying the law's restrictions on actionable claims against liquor suppliers. Yesteryear's causal barrier assumes the imbibers possess a natural capacity to exercise their free will. If this prove untrue, the reason for the causal barrier's invocation no longer exists. [10]
I would treat the claims of minors and mentally disabled persons as actionable either on the theory of tavernkeeper's wilful misconduct or for negligence in furnishing liquor to persons who are known or should be recognized as being under legal disability. A tavernkeeper's liability for serving alcoholic beverages to a legally disabled overimbibing consumer, who is then injured while intoxicated, may be viewed as comprised within that class of common-law tort which imposes responsibility for acts of furnishing a dangerous instrumentality to immature or mentally disabled persons. [11] The delictual accountability rests in these instances on a breached duty to exercise that degree of care which is generally owed to persons under legal disability in proportion to their incapacity for self-protection. Liquor, when consumed by a child or by a mentally impaired person, is known to pose great danger. A tavern owner's sale of alcoholic beverages to persons he knows or should know to be under legal disability creates a well-perceived risk to the buyer's safety. The latter is entitled to the degree of care proportionate to his (or her) inability to foresee and to avoid the perils of alcohol intoxication. Removal of the causal barrier for claims by minors and by the mentally disabled is entirely consistent with the common law's traditional protection accorded persons with an impaired will. [12] Liquor consumers falling into this narrowly defined class must be treated differently from uncoerced sui juris drinkers.