Court Opinion

ID: 9768388
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 06:00:47.708134+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:40.405117
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON PETITION TO REHEAR

This case is before the Court on defendants’ petition to rehear pursuant to Tenn. *940R.App.P. 89. The Court’s opinion released March 7, 1994, found that a minor, such as Cook, is held to an adult standard of care when operating an automobile on a public road and acknowledged that driving while intoxicated on a public road is gross negligence. The defendants’ motion for summary judgment was denied by this Court because the record does not establish as a matter of law the proximate cause of Cook’s injuries. The Court explained:
The Court is not prepared to hold, that no matter what the circumstances, the acts of a minor in purchasing and consuming alcoholic beverages always constitutes the proximate cause of injuries sustained by the minor; nor is the Court prepared to hold that the sale of alcoholic beverages to a minor is never the proximate cause of injuries sustained by the purchaser.
Accordingly, the Court remanded the ease for trial.
Defendants assert in their petition to rehear that the Court made a “clerical or other mistake” by overlooking paragraph 11 of Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amended Complaint which states:
11. At approximately 12:30 a.m. on January 9, 1991, after leaving Spinnaker’s Restaurant, the plaintiff while operating her motor vehicle as a licensed driver on a public road of Sumner County, Tennessee, was involved in a one-car accident in Sumner County which was caused by her intoxication in which she suffered severe and permanent injuries including multiple compound fractures and severe brain injury.
In support of their petition to rehear, defendants argue that had the Court considered paragraph 11 of the Fourth Amended Complaint, it would have dismissed plaintiffs’ cause of action. Specifically, defendants contend that if Cook’s injuries were not caused by her intoxication, defendants could not be held liable because their actions in serving the intoxicating liquor to Cook did not lead to the accident. And, if Cook’s injuries were caused by her intoxication, she was grossly contributory negligent because she was driving a car on a public road in an intoxicated condition. According to defendants, “there is no third possibility.”
Of course, there is a third possibility — the defendants’ illegal act caused Cook to become intoxicated and was the proximate cause of the accident. There is no inconsistency in the allegation that the defendants’ serving intoxicating liquor to Cook caused her to become intoxicated and thus unable to operate her automobile safely. The complaint specifically alleges that defendants’ action in selling the intoxicating liquor to Cook was the proximate cause of the accident. If this allegation can be established when the case is developed factually, defendants may be held liable. McClenahan v. Cooley, 806 S.W.2d 767, 775 (Tenn.1991) (“There is no requirement that a cause, to be regarded as the proximate cause of an injury, be the sole cause, the last act, or the one nearest to the injury, provided it is a substantial factor in producing the end result.”). As stated in the opinion, proximate causation is for the jury to decide unless the uneontroverted facts and inferences to be drawn from them make it so clear that all reasonable persons must agree on the proper outcome. McClenahan, 806 S.W.2d at 775. The record does not disclose, as a matter of law, the proximate cause of Cook’s alleged damages.
The petition to rehear is denied at defendants’ cost.