Court Opinion

ID: 9612048
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:03:52.139802+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:38:26.473861
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Chief Justice LAMBERT.
Respectfully, I must dissent from the majority’s opinion.
The majority “deelinefe] to hold that advice on how to operate at a profit is an inappropriate subject matter for inclusion in a manual providing guidelines for the efficient operation of an organization.” However, the officers’ handbook gives specific instructions on how to profit from the sale of alcoholic beverages, notwithstanding numerous other activities that an organization can utilize to turn a profit. Thus, the purpose for including the provision does not appear as benign as the majority indicates. The focus is not merely on how to make a profit, but rather how to profit from the sale of alcohol.
Furthermore, the majority opines that because Grand Aerie received no portion of the revenues from its local chapters’ social events, it likely had little or no interest in whether its local chapters engaged in the sale or service of alcohol. This begs the question of why, then, did Grand Aerie include the alcohol profit provision. Perhaps, it hoped that the sale of alcohol would make the organization more enticing and induce people to join the chapter or would create a reputation for the organization that would induce other locales to form chapters. As the majority notes, Grand Aerie does receive a per capita tax *855from its local chapters, financed no doubt from the sale of alcohol.
There are many possibilities for Grand Aerie’s inclusion of the alcohol profit provision in its officer’s handbook, which is precisely why this case is inappropriate for summary judgment. Perhaps, a jury would ultimately find that Grand Aerie did not intend to induce or encourage the sale of alcohol at its local chapters. However, a jury should have the opportunity to evaluate any proffered purposes or intentions and make factual findings of whether Grand Aerie encouraged or induced the chapters to sell alcohol and thereby assumed a duty to supervise these activities.
WINTERSHEIMER, J., joins this dissenting opinion.