Court Opinion

ID: 9650124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:25:26.954576+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:18.538684
License: Public Domain

PAPAD AKOS, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. Persons under the age of 21 (here, between 18 and 21) who provide alcohol to others under the age of 21 should be held liable for resultant injuries under the social host doctrine spelled out in Congini by Congini v. Portersville Valve Co., 504 Pa. 157, 470 A.2d 515 (1983).
In Congini, the source of social host liability for adults serving alcohol to minors was the Crimes Code, specifically 18 P.S. § 6308. Because all persons under 21 (including juveniles) are also potentially criminally liable as accomplices for furnishing alcohol to others under 21, they should be held civilly liable as well. The civil immunity conferred by the majority should not exist for social hosts under 21 where they could face criminal responsibility for the same acts. The opposite result would be more in keeping with a public policy that recognizes the pervasive danger of alcohol abuse, imposes per se liability on adult social hosts who serve alcohol to minors (under Congini), and that, moreover, treats 18 to 21 year olds as adults for most purposes (the hosts in the instant case were all between 18 and 21 when the alcohol in question was served). Nothing in our later decision in Alumni Association v. Sullivan, 524 Pa. 356, 572 A.2d 1209 (1990), incidentally, lends support to the result reached by the majority today. For the reasons set forth above, I would reverse the decision of the Superior Court majority in this case and I would rule in accordance with Judge Beck’s dissenting opinion.
MONTEMURO, J., joins this dissenting opinion.