Court Opinion

ID: 9756165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:10:37.263092+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:56:15.656015
License: Public Domain

Gibson, J.,
dissenting. I agree with much of what has been said in the majority opinion. However, in restricting the liability of social hosts to cases involving drunk drivers and minors, the majority draws too fine a “judicial line.” Once a cause of action in negligence is recognized for the overserving of alcohol to obviously intoxicated potential drivers and minors, it is difficult, if not impossible, to deny the existence of a cause of action in other egregious situations. It takes but little imagination to conceive of circumstances wherein a social host would have an equal, if not greater, legal duty to refrain from serving alcoholic beverages to a visibly intoxicated person. Certain incidents have already led to litigation. E.g., Clendening v. Shipton, 149 Cal. App. 3d 191, 196 Cal. Rptr. 654 (1983) (foreseeability of intoxicated guest assaulting own wife and breaking her neck, after being overserved by social hosts, held to be a jury question; incident predated California legislation that precluded social host liability); Cantor v. Anderson, 126 Cal. App. 3d 124, 178 Cal. Rptr. 540 (1981) (developmentally disabled person, known to lose control and become *532violent when drinking, attacked woman after being served alcohol by social hosts; California statute precluding social host liability held not to bar liability when alcohol is served to an incompetent person known to be unable voluntarily to resist its consumption); Taggart v. Bitzenhofer, 33 Ohio St. 2d 35, 294 N.E.2d 226 (1973) (tavern patron, who was furnished liquor after showing pistol and threatening to shoot two other patrons, made good his threat one-half hour later, killing one and wounding the other).
What is at issue ... is not whether social hosts should always or even generally be liable. It is whether all persons should be immune from civil liability for purveyance of alcohol, as a matter of law, simply because they do not own a bar or a liquor store. “It makes little sense to say that the licensee ... is under a duty to exercise care, but give immunity to a social host who may be guilty of the same wrongful conduct merely because he is unlicensed.”
Koloff, The Torts of the Intoxicated: Who Should Be Liable? 15 Colum. J.L. & Soc. Probs. 33, 50-51 (1979) (emphasis in original) (quoting Linn v. Rand, 140 N.J. Super. 212, 217, 356 A.2d 15, 18 (1976)).
The “immunization of hosts is not the inevitable result of the law of negligence, for conventional negligence analysis points strongly in exactly the opposite direction.” Kelly v. Gwinnell, 96 N.J. 538, 543, 476 A.2d 1219, 1221 (1984). In Oregon, when a social host “ ‘has reason to know that he is dealing with persons whose characteristics make it especially likely that they will do unreasonable things’ ” when intoxicated, the host who furnishes alcohol to such persons may be held liable for injuries caused by them as a result of their intoxication. Wiener v. Gamma Phi Chapter of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, 258 Or. 632, 639, 485 P.2d 18, 21 (1971) (quoting Prosser on Torts § 33, at 175 (3d ed. 1964)). Such an approach requires “[n]o legislative enactment . . . ; it is ordinary tort law.” Manning v. Andy, 454 Pa. 237, 242, 310 A.2d 75, 77 (1973) (Pomeroy, J., concurring).
The pleadings herein make no representation as to whether plaintiff is a person who is especially likely to do unreasonable things when intoxicated or whether defendant had reason to know of any such characteristic on the part of plaintiff. I would remand the case to allow plaintiff the opportunity to amend his *533pleadings to set forth the necessary allegations, and if he does so, to prove his case.
As for the concern of the majority that this Court would be “judicially legislating” if it were to entertain this cause of action, we must not stick our heads in the sand when there is a demonstrated need for a change in the common law. “The development of the law of torts has been and is now peculiarly a function of the common law judge.” Lewis v. Wolf, 122 Ariz. 567, 571, 596 P.2d 705, 709 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1979). In fact, “there is a remarkable dearth of legislative incentive to consider or initiate reforms of tort law.” Peck, The Role of the Courts and Legislatures in the Reform of Tort Law, 48 Minn. L. Rev. 265, 296 (1963). The judiciary must take cognizance of the vitality of the common law; as the needs of a society evolve, we are obligated “to face a difficult legal question and accept judicial responsibility for a needed change in the common law.” Hay v. Medical Center Hospital, 145 Vt. 533, 543, 496 A.2d 939, 945 (1985).
The Vermont Supreme Court has frequently resolved difficult problems by reevaluating the common law. E.g., id. at 545, 496 A.2d at 946 (minor may recover for loss of parental consortium); Sheltra v. Smith, 136 Vt. 472, 392 A.2d 431 (1978) (recognized tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress).* As was so well stated in Hay, supra,
[m]any of these cases have produced change which would have a profound effect on social and business relationships, such as industry-wide insurance patterns, husband-wife relationships, and lessor-lessee obligations, to mention only the most obvious. When confronted with these difficult and complex issues, this Court did not shirk its duty and retreat into the safe haven of deference to the legislature. It is the responsibility of the courts to balance competing interests and to allocate losses arising out of human activities. One of the principal purposes of the law of torts is to compensate people for injuries they sustain as a result of the negligent conduct of others.
Hay, supra, 145 Vt. at 543-44, 496 A.2d at 945 (citing Prosser & Keeton, Law of Torts § 1, at 6 (5th ed. 1984)).
*534A court does not overstep its proper bounds when, in the absence of legislative mandate, it creates a new cause of action to meet a societal need.
[Recognition of the judiciary’s reform function with respect to the law of torts involves no actual conflict with the legislature. Arguments to the contrary are based on an artificial view of the legislative process or a rigid and doctrinaire view of the common law. Indeed, . . . judicial activity may well complement the representational system of government, apprising the legislature of matters that would otherwise be ignored in the turmoil of the legislative process.
Peck, supra, at 292-93.
“[U]ntil the legislatures act, the problem sits squarely in the lap of the judiciary. Reform in this area should [not] be hindered ... by narrow conceptions of the judicial function .... The intoxicated tortfeasor is a social problem.” Koloff, supra, at 60 (emphasis in original).
I would, therefore, remand this case to allow plaintiff an opportunity to make an appropriate amendment to his pleadings. Only if he fails to do so should the case then be dismissed.
I am authorized to say that Justice Hill joins in this dissent.

 See Hay, supra, 145 Vt. at 543-45, 496 A.2d at 945-46, for additional cases in which this Court has modified common law principles.