Opinion ID: 1320200
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Negligence Per Se Instruction

Text: Appellants asked that the jury be instructed that violation by the defendants of a Reno municipal ordinance, prohibiting the sale or furnishing of alcoholic beverages to any person actually or apparently under the influence of alcoholic beverages, would constitute negligence as a matter of law. In Hamm v. Carson City Nugget, Inc., 85 Nev. 99, 450 P.2d 358 (1969), we considered carefully the policy considerations involved in imposing civil liability upon one who sells liquor to a person who is drunk, on the basis of a similar prohibitory state statute. We concluded then that in the absence of evidence of legislative intent to impose such liability, we would decline to hold that violation of such a statute is negligence per se. Our ruling in Hamm is dispositive here. The trial court correctly rejected appellants' proposed instruction.