Court Opinion

ID: 9704812
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:47:25.093385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:05.645009
License: Public Domain

Wilkins, J.
(dissenting in part, with whom Liacos, C.J., joins). I disagree with the court’s conclusion on what it calls “the employer-host liability claim,” a characterization of the employer’s role in this matter with which I do not concur.
I believe that the defendant owed a duty to travelers on the highways, such as the plaintiffs, if (1) the defendant allowed the consumption of alcoholic beverages during working hours by the employee who caused the accident (in fact, encouraged the practice by knowingly providing refrigeration for alcoholic beverages), (2) the defendant knew or reasonably should have known both (a) that the employee who negligently caused the plaintiffs’ injuries was intoxicated as he was leaving work and (b) that the employee was immediately going to operate a motor vehicle, and (3) the defendant could have but did not take reasonable steps to prevent the employee from operating the motor vehicle. In these circumstances, it is irrelevant that the employer did not provide the alcoholic beverages. The employer was in a position more analogous to a licensed seller of alcoholic beverages than to a social host because the employer had control over the conduct of his employee in a way no social host has over a guest. Indeed, on the facts that give rise to the duty I have identified, the employer had more control over its employee’s conduct than the operator of a bar or restaurant has over its customers.
This issue should not have been foreclosed on summary judgment.