Court Opinion

ID: 9631029
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:27:12.064791+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:47.228306
License: Public Domain

KLEINSCHMIDT, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Distilled to their essence, the facts are that the employer, Chas Roberts Air Conditioning, Inc., allowed its employees to drink beer on its premises in furtherance of company business and that an employee so engaged left the employer’s premises under the influence of alcohol and consequently became involved in the accident which gave rise to this lawsuit. Or so a trier of fact could find.6
I do not agree with the holding in Keckonen v. Robles, 146 Ariz. 268, 705 P.2d 945 (App.1985). I do not see the employer in this case as a “social host.” Here, the employer used alcohol to further his business purpose. That being the case, I think that the correct principle to apply is the one adopted by the Supreme Court of Washington in Dickinson v. Edwards, 105 Wash.2d 457, 716 P.2d 814 (1986). In that case the employer, Kaiser Aluminum, put on a banquet to honor its long-time employees. Alcohol was served at the banquet, and an employee, Ersel Edwards, had a number of drinks. After he left the banquet, Edwards was involved in an automobile accident in which the plaintiff was injured. The plaintiff sued both Edwards and Kaiser, and the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Kaiser. The Supreme Court of Washington reversed. It ruled that if the proximate cause of the accident was the employee’s negligent overconsumption of alcohol at a party hosted by the employer to further the employer’s interests, and if the employee’s presence was requested or impliedly or expressly required by the employer, the employer would be liable. Dickinson, 105 Wash.2d at 468-69, 716 P.2d at 820. It found the employer vicariously liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior because the proximate cause of the accident — the over-consumption of alcohol — occurred while the employee was at the banquet acting within the scope of his employment. Id.
The majority agrees with the dissent in Dickinson, which observed that the connection between the employer’s interest and the employee’s activity which caused injury must exist at the time of the act— meaning the accident — that results in injury. Id. at 491-492, 716 P.2d at 832. I do not agree with this because drinking has a prolonged effect. An employee who drinks, whether at a banquet or on the employer’s premises while waiting for a work assignment, may leave and cause an accident some time later.
The majority also distinguishes Dickinson by observing that the employer in the case before us did not sponsor an event and did not furnish the beer its employees drank. Here, however, the employer benefitted from allowing the beer drinking on its premises because that activity kept employees available for performing additional work as the need might arise. I see no conceptual difference between asking employees to attend a work-related banquet where alcohol is served, and suffering them to drink alcohol on the employer’s premises so that they will remain on hand *230for further work. In both situations, the employer is using alcohol to further his business purposes.
I also think that the Supreme Court of Washington’s rationale in Dickinson bears on the interpretation of the Restatement (Second) of Torts section 317 (1965). Under that section, an employer has a duty to control his employee who is acting outside the scope of his employment if the employee is conducting himself so as to create an unreasonable risk of harm to others and if the employee is on the employer’s premises. The majority points out that in the case before us the employee was not on the employer’s premises at the time of the accident. True, but under the rationale of Dickinson the employee in the case before us was on the employer’s premises at the time the employee did the act, or more precisely did one of the acts, that caused the accident. Chas Roberts Air Conditioning, Inc. had every right to tell its employee, Michael Duarte, not to drink beer on its premises. In short, I do not agree with the majority’s conclusion that the employer could not be liable under the Restatement section 317.
The difference between the Restatement and Dickinson is, of course, that under the Restatement the employer would not be vicariously liable. Where the employer benefits from the employee’s conduct, I believe that the rule laid down in Dickinson should apply.
Finally, I cannot ignore A.R.S. section 4-301. It provides:
A person other than a licensee or an employee of a licensee acting during the employee’s working hours or in connection with such employment is not liable in damages to any person who is injured, or to the survivors of any person killed, or for damage to property, which is alleged to have been caused in whole or in part by reason of the furnishing or serving of spirituous liquor to a person of the legal drinking age.
Since the employer in this case did not furnish liquor to the employee, the statute does not, by its terms, apply. I acknowledge that the law as I interpret it, juxtaposed with this statute, results in an anomaly. An employer, like the one in Dickinson who actually furnishes liquor would not be liable, while an employer which suffers its employee to drink in furtherance of a business purpose, may be responsible for injuries caused by that activity. The resolution of this anomaly is a problem for another day.

. In their brief, as they did in their Response to the Motion for Summary Judgment, the plaintiffs assert that the employer benefited from allowing the beer drinking because it kept employees available at the employer’s yard for performing additional work. The record supports this conclusion only by a thin inference. The employer, however, does not expressly dispute this inference, and the majority opinion assumes that the inference is supported by the evidence. So do I, and since I do there is no need to explore in detail whether the employer benefited in some other respect, such as by fostering employee good will.