Court Opinion

ID: 9546143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:25:29.952862+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:03.139392
License: Public Domain

Callow, J.
(dissenting) — I agree with the sentiment that a corporation or individual who serves liquor to a person obviously intoxicated at a gathering convened for a business purpose should have a responsibility to see that those served do not leave the gathering in an intoxicated condition. However, the body to impose such a responsibility and ultimate liability is the Legislature, not this court. Therefore, I dissent.
For 50 years, from 1905 to 1955, the Legislature set the standard of duty of responsibility of those who gave or sold liquor to persons who thereby became intoxicated and injured others. The right of action for damages in a civil suit against the person who furnished the liquor was permitted if the injured party could prove that the liquor was *483sold under circumstances which would lead the furnisher to believe that the sale would result in intoxication. In 1955 this duty was abolished by the Legislature.
In 37 Wash. L. Rev. 263 (1962), the Comment entitled Tavernkeeper's Liability for Act of Guest stated at pages 267-68:
Another theory of negligence might have been argued by the plaintiff, even in absence of any showing of knowledge by the defendants of the vicious propensities of any specific patron: to impose liability through the device of a Washington statute making the furnishing of intoxicating liquor to one known to be intoxicated a misdemeanor.21 This criminal statute has never been made a basis for civil liability of a tavernkeeper in Washington for torts of an intoxicated patron. However in two jurisdictions it has been held that such a statute imposed a duty, the breach of which was held to be imprudent conduct and was the proximate cause of injury to a third party by the intoxicated patron. Both cases involved the liability of a tavernkeeper for injuries sustained in an automobile collision caused by the negligence of the intoxicated patron. It is clear that for such a theory to operate the statute must be construed to confer a private rather than merely a public benefit and the act resulting in harm must have been a result of intoxication.
Thus, if the plaintiff could prove that the affray was caused by the defendants' breach of statutory duty and the harm to the plaintiff was within the forseeable risk created by the breach of that duty, recovery might have been had on this theory. There is an historical hurdle that must be overcome to fasten liability with such reasoning, in addition to finding a private benefit conferred by the criminal statute. At common law serving intoxicating liquor was not the proximate cause of injury resulting from intoxication. Rather the voluntary drinking of the intoxicant was the legal cause of the risk resulting in eventual injury. This common law immunity of the tavernkeeper has given rise to various dram-shop acts, imposing liability the tavernkeeper would otherwise escape. In the great majority of states today the mere sale of intoxicating liquor gives rise to no cause of action, even though the sale was in violation of some law other than an applicable dram-shop act.26
*484(Some footnotes omitted.)
The Legislature repealed the Washington dramshop act in 1955. Then again it acted upon the same subject in 1973 when it repealed RCW 66.44.230. Thus, the Legislature has acted twice within recent years to remove liability from those who furnish liquor and left responsibility squarely upon the shoulders of the consumer. When the Legislature has taken cognizance of an activity and expressed its intent on a subject, this court should not impose its own view.
Further, the rule now announced by the court changes the standard of conduct after the fact. Suddenly Kaiser and the Red Lion discover that each had a duty to supervise and police the conduct of each individual who attended the function. That duty did not exist under the law on the date *485in question. Now these defendants are told that they should have acted differently and that they are liable for a failure to act when the Legislature had indicated there was no duty.
In 1933 the Legislature passed the Washington State Liquor Act concerning the monopoly control of the sale, purchase and use of liquor in the state. Laws of 1933, 1st Ex. Sess., ch. 62, p. 173 (now RCW Title 66). The Legislature, rebounding from the vacuum created by prohibition (U.S. Const, amends. 18 and 21), acted to adopt a statutory scheme governing all conduct involving liquor. As noted in RCW 66.08.010:
This entire title shall be deemed an exercise of the police power of the state, for the protection of the welfare, health, peace, morals, and safety of the people of the state, and all its provisions shall be liberally construed for the accomplishment of that purpose.
This legislative consideration included the relationship between the providers of liquor to consumers and those subsequently injured by the consumer. This is a problem properly addressed by the Legislature. See State ex rel. Shannon v. Sponburgh, 66 Wn.2d 135, 139, 401 P.2d 635 (1965); Ajax v. Gregory, 177 Wash. 465, 32 P.2d 560 (1934). It involves a number of considerations other than the few parties involved in this case. It involves the way in which hotels, restaurants, taverns, clubs, grocery chains, convenience stores, fraternal organizations and others must act when the service of liquor is involved. The majority excludes social hosts but invites their inclusion. One can anticipate their inclusion as party defendants in suits brought in the future. When multitudinous entities, parties, and concerns are involved, the legislative process is better equipped to reconcile those concerns. When the Legislature has clearly withdrawn a duty, the court should not impose its own view as to proper conduct and morality.
Here (1) the Legislature has indicated its collective judgment in this area; (2) the imposition of liability, after the fact, is unjust and unfair to the defendants; and (3) the *486duty of this court is to bring the problem to the attention of the Legislature and permit the Legislature to act or refrain from action as it will.
Dolliver, C.J., and Andersen, J., concur with Callow, J.

 RCW 66.44.230 applies to one that is an ". . . owner or manager of, or an employee in any drinking saloon, drinking celler [sic] or public dance hall or music hall where intoxicating liquors are sold or kept for sale." RCW 66.44.200 states: "No person shall sell any liquor to any person apparently under the influence of liquor."

Wash. Sess. Laws 1905, ch. 62, § 1, imposing civil liability on Washington Tavernkeepers, was repealed in 1955 by RCW 4.24.100. It may be argued that this repeal of the Washington "dram-shop" act is an expression of legislative intent to not confer a private benefit from the duty imposed by RCW 66.44.200 and RCW 66.44.230. Yet, the opposite conclusion was reached in Rappaport v. Nichols, 31 N.J. 188, 156 A.2d 1 (1959), where the New Jersey "dram-shop" act had also been repealed. Judge Rosellini, concurring in the principal case, implies such a result might be reached in Washington. In quoting from Conolly v. Nicollet Hotel, 259 Minn. 373, 382, 25 N.W.2d 657 at 665 he states: "It is the policy of the law, both statutory and decisional to protect the public from social consequences of intoxicating liquor. There is perhaps no field of business activity more hedged about with state and municipal laws and regulations designed to protect the public. When a person engaged in that business permits crowds to gather upon his premises for profit, he must recognize the risks which flow from the nature of the business." 158 Wash. Dec. 874, 883, 365 P.2d 333, 339 (1961).