Court Opinion

ID: 9848939
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:30:30.691717+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:54.760943
License: Public Domain

Justice Mitchell
concurring in the result.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs have alleged that the defendants Howard L. Ivey, Jr., John Rosenblatt, David King and David Howell knowingly served beer to a minor, John Little, Jr., which caused him to become intoxicated and drive a motor vehicle into the vehicle driven by the female plaintiff, proximately causing the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries. Under N.C.G.S. § 18B-302(a), it is a general misdemeanor for any person to give or sell alcoholic beverages to anyone less than twenty-one years old. N.C.G.S. § 18B-302(a)(l), (2) (1989). Obviously, the alleged acts of these defendants as “social hosts” knowingly giving beer to a minor were criminal acts under the statute. Id. Nevertheless, the majority concludes that these defendants’ criminal actions in violating the statute, as alleged in the complaint, do not amount to negligence per se because the statute is not a “public safety” statute intended to protect the plaintiffs. I believe that the majority’s conclusion in this regard is erroneous.
Ordinarily, violation of a statute enacted for the safety and protection of the public is negligence per se — negligence as a matter of law. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Holland, 324 N.C. 466, 475, 380 S.E.2d 100, 105 (1989); Gore v. George J. Ball, 279 N.C. 192, 198, 182 S.E.2d 389, 392 (1971). Accordingly, we have stated that “violation of a statute which imposes a duty upon the defendant in order to promote the safety of others, including the plaintiff, is negligence per se, unless the statute, itself, otherwise provides, and such negligence is actionable if it is the proximate cause of injury to the plaintiff.” Lamm v. Bissette Realty, Inc., 327 N.C. 412, 415, 395 S.E.2d 112, 114 (1990) (quoting Ratliff v. Power Co., 268 N.C. 605, 610, 151 S.E.2d 641, 645 (1966)). Clearly, *307N.C.G.S. § 18B-302 is such a public safety statute. Freeman v. Finney, 65 N.C. App. 526, 529, 309 S.E.2d 531, 534 (1983), disc. rev. denied, 310 N.C. 744, 315 S.E.2d 702 (1984). See Hutchens v. Hankins, 63 N.C. App. 1, 303 S.E.2d 584, disc. rev. denied, 309 N.C. 191, 305 S.E.2d 734 (1983).
Better reasoned cases always have taken the view that laws governing the sale of alcoholic beverages are intended to and do enhance the well-being of the community by protecting all members of the public from the dangers arising from the indiscriminate sale of such alcoholic beverages. E.g., Marusa v. District of Columbia, 484 F.2d 828, 834 (D.C. Cir. 1973). I had thought it known to all humankind that when one provides alcoholic beverages to a minor, “the unreasonable risk of harm not only to the minor . . . but also to members of the traveling public may readily be recognized and foreseen.” Rappaport v. Nichols, 31 N.J. 188, 202, 156 A.2d 1, 8 (1959). In its opinion in the present case, our Court of Appeals was quite correct in saying “[w]e need not recite at any length the record of carnage on our public highways caused by drivers {particularly those under age) who have consumed intoxicating beverages.” Hart v. Ivey, 102 N.C. App. 583, 590, 403 S.E.2d 914, 919 (1991) (emphasis added). But highway safety is only one of many public safety interests served by our statute prohibiting the serving of alcoholic beverages to minors. Foremost among those interests is the physical and mental health of the children involved. Our legislature on behalf of our society has reasonably determined that children do not have sufficient maturity and discretion to decide whether to risk their health and safety by consuming alcoholic beverages. As a result, our legislature has made it a criminal act for any person to give alcoholic beverages to children. The legislature did so for the safety of our children and the general public and intended that such criminal violations be treated as negligence per se.
The majority of this Court, however, seems to take the view that N.C.G.S. § 18B-302 was intended to prevent minors from drinking alcoholic beverages for some unknowable reason unrelated to public safety. The majority here says that highway safety could not have been one of the reasons for the adoption of the statute because an adult driving under the influence of alcohol can be as dangerous as a minor. No doubt adult drivers under the influence of alcoholic beverages can be as dangerous to themselves and the public as drinking minors who drive on the public highways. However, reason and common sense could only have led our General Assembly, *308like all ordinary citizens, to know that minors who drink alcoholic beverages and drive on the public highways ordinarily will be more dangerous to themselves and to the general public than more experienced adults who drive under the influence of alcohol. Further, it should be obvious to anyone that children who drink are more likely to fall under the influence of alcohol and to be generally more dangerous in every respect imaginable than similarly situated adults. Clearly, the statute in question here was intended to protect inexperienced youths and the general public from that danger and other dangers which arise when minors are served alcoholic beverages. This Court should take judicial notice of such obvious facts, including the fact that this statute was intended by the General Assembly as a public health and safety measure. We have previously said that there are many facts of which courts “may take judicial notice, and they should take notice of whatever is, or ought to be, generally known within the limits of their jurisdiction, for justice does not require that courts profess to be more ignorant than the rest of mankind.” State v. Vick, 213 N.C. 235, 238, 195 S.E. 779, 781 (1938), quoted in State v. Davis, 245 N.C. 146, 149-50, 95 S.E.2d 564, 566-67 (1956). The fact that minors drinking alcoholic beverages generally are more dangerous to themselves and others than adults and the fact that laws against serving alcohol to minors protect public safety are facts known to everyone and should be judicially recognized by this Court. One court has stated when construing a statute nearly identical to the one before us: “[I]t would be absurd indeed to maintain that one of the purposes of the statute in question was not to protect the public from the risk of injury caused by intoxicated minors. Thus, defendants’ alleged violation of the statute would, if proven, constitute negligence per se. . . .” Thaut v. Finley, 50 Mich. App. 611, 613, 213 N.W.2d 820, 822 (1974) (social hosts’ violation of statute prohibiting giving alcoholic beverage to minor social guests). I would follow the well-reasoned decisions of other courts which have concluded that statutes which prohibit giving alcoholic beverages to minors are public safety statutes and that violations of those statutes by social hosts amount to negligence per se. E.g., Davis v. Shiappacossee, 155 So. 2d 365 (Fla. 1963); Koback v. Crook, 123 Wis. 2d 259, 366 N.W.2d 857 (1985). See generally Edward L. Raymond, Jr., Annotation, Social Host’s Liabilities for Injuries Incurred by Third Parties as a Result of Intoxicated Guests’ Negligence, 62 A.L.R. 4th 16 (1988); 45 Am. Jur. 2d Intoxicating Liquors § 555 (1969). As a result, I would hold that if the plaintiffs can prove that these *309defendants violated N.C.G.S. § 18B-302, they will also have established negligence per se on the part of these defendants.
For the foregoing reasons, I concur in the result reached by the majority in affirming the holding of the Court of Appeals, which reversed the trial court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims against each of these defendants for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. I agree with the majority’s reasoning and conclusion to the effect that the plaintiffs have stated a cognizable claim against these defendants “for liability under common law principles of negligence.” Since I reject the majority’s unfortunate conclusion that these defendants’ alleged violations of N.C.G.S. § 18B-302 do not amount to negligence per se, however, I must concur only in the result reached here by the majority.
Justice Lake joins in the concurring opinion.