Court Opinion

ID: 9585123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:56:39.353532+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:28:56.265389
License: Public Domain

Justice Frye
concurring.
I agree with the majority that plaintiff has not produced a sufficient forecast of evidence to maintain a common law negligence claim against defendants based on the sale of alcohol to Otis Blount. However, the crucial question here is not whether there was a duty, but whether the evidence forecast a breach of duty.
“Actionable negligence is the failure to exercise that degree of care which a reasonable and prudent person would exercise under similar conditions.” Hart v. Ivey, 332 N.C. 299, 305, 420 S.E.2d 174, 177-78 (1992). Under this Court’s decisions in Hart and Camalier v. Jeffries, 340 N.C. 699, 460 S.E.2d 133 (1995), “an individual may be held liable on a theory of common-law negligence if he (1) served alcohol to a person (2) when he knew or should have known the person was intoxicated and (3) when he knew the person would be driving afterwards.” Id. at 711, 460 S.E.2d at 138. Here, as in Camalier, the forecast of evidence was insufficient to show that defendants knew or should have known that Blount was intoxicated at the time they sold alcohol to him. Thus, plaintiffs failed to forecast evidence of a breach of duty, and summary judgment for defendants was proper. Accordingly, I agree that the decision of the Court of Appeals should be affirmed.