Court Opinion

ID: 9594164
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:27:37.937861+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:08:57.276846
License: Public Domain

LEVINSON, Justice,
concurring.
As a result of our decision today, this court has adopted the reasoning of “the thorough discussion,” opinion of the court at 19, in Thompson v. Victor’s Liquor Store, Inc., 216 N.J.Super. 202, 523 A.2d 269 (1987), in holding that “the § 281-78(a)(2)(A) duty we have recognized includes the situation where an innocent third party has been injured by an intoxicated minor other than the minor to whom the liquor was sold, subject to determinations by the trier of fact on the issue of reasonable foreseeability.” Opinion of the court at 22.
It is noteworthy that the plaintiff in Thompson was a minor who shared liquor and beer purchased from the defendant package store by another minor, became voluntarily intoxicated, and thereafter injured himself in a one-car collision with a brick wall. I assume that it is these facts that form the basis of our recognition that the Thompson plaintiff “would likely not have a claim under Hawai'i law after Winters [v. Silver Fox Bar, 71 Haw. 524, 797 P.2d 51 (1990) ].” Opinion of the court at 1289 n. 7. That being the case, I respectfully suggest that the Winters rationale—and along with it, the fundamental premises of Bertelmann v. Taas Associates, 69 Haw. 95, 735 P.2d 930 (1987), and Feliciano v. Waikiki Deep Water, Inc., 69 Haw. 605, 752 P.2d 1076 (1988)—should be rethought.