Court Opinion

ID: 9685578
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:49:48.421665+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:07.917570
License: Public Domain

Hallows, C. J.
(dissenting). The time has arrived when this court should again exercise its inherent power as the guardian of the common law and hold upon general principles of common-law negligence a person, who, when he knows or should have known a person is intoxicated, sells or gives intoxicating liquor to such a person, is guilty of a negligent act; and if such negligence is a substantial factor in causing harm to a third person, he should be liable with the drunken person under our comparative-negligence doctrine. Conceded, the common law in this state for almost one hundred years has been to the contrary. Dillon v. Linder (1874), 36 Wis. 344; Demge v. Feierstein (1936), 222 Wis. 199, 268 N. W. 210; Seibel v. Leach (1939), 233 Wis. 66, 288 N. W. 774; Farmers Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v. Gast (1962), 17 Wis. 2d 344, 117 N. W. 2d 347, but the basis upon which these cases were decided is sadly eroded by the shift from commingling alcohol and horses to commingling alcohol and horsepower.
The denial of recovery in this area of torts has been traditionally premised upon four basic grounds: (1) No duty existed because it was the drinking, not the selling, of the liquor which was the cause; and harm to a third person could not be foreseen from the selling of the liquor; (2) that the legislature has preempted the field by the passage of a Dram Shop Act; (3) that the change in the common law is the exclusive prerogative of the legislature; and (4) creating liability would open the door to a flood of unfounded cases.
The majority opinion recognizes the selling of liquor to a drunk is negligence and a substantial factor contributing to the cause of a foreseeable injury to third persons. It thus repudiates the rationale of Seibel v. *738Leach, supra. The majority reiterates this court’s past position that it has a duty and the power to change and mold the common law to meet changing needs and is not compelled to defer changes in the common law to the legislature. In response to the third traditional ground, the court sidesteps the question of whether the existence of secs. 176.26, 176.28, and 176.35, Stats., preempts the field by stating this question is not before the court. I think these sections do not preempt and would depart from Farmers Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v. Gast, supra. The majority opinion rests its decision against liability, although it recognizes negligence at common law and causation, solely upon what it considers to be public-policy factors. This is the point of our departure.
Of course, drinking is a social problem but the function of law is to help solve social problems. Law is life; it deals with the relationship of human beings and must concern itself with everyday problems whether they are labeled social or legal. It does no good to verbalize about the court’s inherent power to update the law and then not act when there is a need crying for satisfaction. In recognizing the selling or giving of liquor to a drunk is negligence because it is reasonably foreseeable that such a person will cause harm to another while intoxicated, the common law justly removes an arbitrary exception to .the fault principle of tort liability. This reasonable foreseeability of harm is evidenced by the statistics of auto accidents and carnage on our highways. Alcohol and Highway Safety, A report to the Congress from the Secretary of Transportation, August, 1968; Deaths Reported in Wisconsin, 1968, Annual Report of Wisconsin Department of Health & Social Services, summary p. (O); The Role of the Drinking Driver in Traffic Accidents, Department of Police Administration, Indiana University, 1965, p. 165. Recognizing liability is not singling out a particular type of business upon which to impose liability. On the contrary, the majority opinion *739in effect immunizes a particular industry from liability for conduct the court concedes to be negligence and a cause of injury to third persons. Its result is reached in part on the theory the injury is .too remote.
I think the majority misreads Pfeifer v. Standard Gateway Theater, Inc. (1952), 262 Wis. 229, 55 N. W. 2d 29. Pfiefer contemplates a bizzare result, one in the chain of causation in a philosophical sense but so fantastic that it would be unjust to hold the negligent person liable in damages. Under comparative negligence, selling liquor to a drunk and drinking by the drunk are concurrent causes. Drinking does not constitute an intervening superseding cause insulating the responsibility of the prior seller of the liquor. A drunk driving an auto and causing an accident is no unusual bizzare result but an every night tragedy. Such cases are not “hard” and the results are not remote. They are commonplace and of national concern. A person, who gives or sells liquor to one he knows has had enough or too much and cannot exercise self-protective care, is not in social justice entitled to immunity for such conduct.
The majority is concerned with the difficulty of making a distinction of where to draw the line between liability and no liability. After having correctly stated that foreseeability was part of negligence and not causation, the majority opinion suggests it is rather difficult to draw a line between selling liquor and giving liquor to an intoxicated person. In effect, the majority says if it is logical to hold the commercial dispenser liable, then there is no legitimate basis for not also holding the private dispenser liable; and since it is impractical to hold a private dispenser liable, we will not hold either. The necessity of drawing a line of demarcation is a straw-man argument, and I see no reason why such a distinction must be made. If a person loans his automobile to a minor incapable of driving or to an intoxicated person unable to drive or gives a loaded gun to a minor *740who is unable to use it safely, the law has no difficulty in finding liability. See Hopkins v. Droppers (1924), 184 Wis. 400, 408, 198 N. W. 738, 741; Campbell, Work of the Supreme Court, 1941 Wis. L. Rev. 116, 117. We are still our brothers keepers, and it would be a rare host at a social gathering who would knowingly give more liquor to an intoxicated friend when he knows his invitee must take care of himself on the highway and will potentially endanger other persons. Social justice and common sense require the social host to see within reason that his guests do not partake too much of his generosity.
The majority opinion considers it poor public policy to hold a supplier of liquor liable because this would dilute the responsibility of a drunk driver and thus would bypass his legal and financial accountability. Implicit is the suggestion this wrong and the drunk driver should remain solely liable as a deterrent to his drinking. But a drunk driver is just as legally and financially responsible to the innocent victim of his conduct as the supplier of liquor when their negligence concurred to cause harm to a third person. An innocent victim may recover against either tort-feasor; but under our doctrine of contribution, the joint tort-feasors will allocate between themselves the loss in proportion to the contribution of their fault. Bielski v. Schulze (1962), 16 Wis. 2d 1, 114 N. W. 2d 105. If a drunk driver is not 100 percent responsible for the injury, he ought not to pay .that proportion of the injury which is the fault of the supplier of the liquor which made him intoxicated. If we are looking for a deterrent for drinking, sole liability of the drunk driver will not deter as effectively as liability for selling liquor to an inebriate — one cannot drink if no one will sell or give him liquor.
The argument that extending liability will increase litigation is the standard objection made every time such a question is considered. This scare argument of unfounded claims, increased burden on the courts, and the *741unjustness of putting a person to a defense of a lawsuit, has been considered and rejected many times. If accepted, it would bring to a standstill the important and vital work of the court in respect to keeping the common law modern and viable. These same dire results, predicted when this court abolished governmental, parental, hospital, and religious immunities, have not come to pass. Logically this ground caves in of its own weight because extended logically no recovery should be allowed in any area because someone may bring a false claim.
Only two cases since this problem has come to the fore in legal literature in the last ten years have taken the view followed by the majority. These states are Nevada 1 and Idaho.2 On the other hand, the old text relating to the common-law no-liability rule in Corpus Juris Secundum and American Jurisprudence has been changed to reflect the shift in the new cases finding liability. See 48 C. J. S., Intoxicating Liquors (1969 Supp.), sec. 430"; 30 Am. Jur., Intoxicating Liquors (1965 Supp.), sec. 521.
Most of the literature has been in favor of abolishing the old rule and in one form or another rejecting all the policy considerations relied upon by the majority. See 75 A. L. R. 2d 821, 77 A. L. R. 2d 1260; 31 ATL L. J. (1965) 121; 32 ATL L. J. (1968) 407. The impetus for finding common-law liability was engendered by the landmark case of Rappaport v. Nichols (1959), 31 N. J. 188, 156 Atl. 2d 1, 75 A. L. R. 2d 821. It is from this much cited and discussed case that the modern trend has sprung. Today at least nine jurisdictions have imposed general common-law negligence liability based upon the commonsense public policy that one who furnishes alcoholic beverages to a person who is, or may reasonably be expected to become, intoxicated, may be held liable if the consumption of said alcoholic beverages is causally related to the damage complained of.
*742In Davis v. Shiappacossee (Fla. 1963), 155 So. 2d 365, the court held a father had a cause of action for the death of his minor son who lost control of the automobile he was operating because of intoxication induced by the defendant’s illegal sale of alcoholic beverages to him. In Elder v. Fisher (1966), 247 Ind. 598, 217 N. E. 2d 847, the court held a passenger had a cause of action for injuries sustained in an automobile accident caused by the defendant’s illegal sale of liquor to a minor driver. The Kentucky court in Pike v. George (Ky. 1968), 434 S. W. 2d 626, held a passenger had a cause of action for injuries sustained in an automobile accident caused by the defendant’s illegal sale of liquor to a minor driver. In Adamian v. Three Sons, Inc. (1968), 353 Mass. 498, 233 N. E. 2d 18, it was held passengers injured in an automobile collision with a drunk driver had a cause of action against the tavernkeeper who solicited motorist-patrons with a large parking lot and who sold liquor in such amounts as to cause the driver to become intoxicated. In Ramsey v. Anctil (1965), 106 N. H. 375, 211 Atl. 2d 900, the court held a patron who injured his wrist by pounding on a table had a cause of action for the tavernkeeper’s sale of liquor to him after he was intoxicated.
The New Jersey court in Rappaport v. Nichols, supra, held a wife had a cause of action for her husband’s death when the car driven by him collided with one driven by an intoxicated minor to whom defendant had illegally sold intoxicating liquors. See also Galvin v. Jennings (3d Cir. 1961), 289 Fed. 2d 15 (intoxicated driver injured in automobile accident had cause of action against tavernkeeper who had sold him liquor while intoxicated) and Soronen v. Olde Milford Inn (1966), 46 N. J. 582, 218 Atl. 2d 630 (wife had action for husband’s death resulting from fall in defendant’s tavern after defendant had served him alcoholic beverages while deceased husband was visibly intoxicated). A lower *743New York court in Berkeley v. Park (1965), 47 Misc. 2d 381, 262 N. Y. Supp. 2d 290, held .the defendant’s service of intoxicating liquors to an intoxicated driver and passenger gave a cause of action in common-law negligence, as well as under the dram shop statute, to occupants of the other car involved in an automobile collision with the intoxicated driver’s automobile. In Majors v. Brodhead Hotel (1965), 416 Pa. 265, 205 Atl. 2d 873, the court held the sale of liquor in such amounts as to cause intoxication gave the plaintiff patron a cause of action for injuries sustained in a fall from a ledge of the defendant hotel; and again in Smith v. Evans (1966), 421 Pa. 247, 219 Atl. 2d 310, a minor driver had a cause of action for injuries sustained in an automobile accident caused by defendant’s sale of intoxicating liquors to him while in a state of visible intoxication. Lastly, in Tennessee the court in Mitchell v. Ketner (1964), 54 Tenn. App. 656, 393 S. W. 2d 755, held the sale to an already intoxicated driver would give injured third persons a cause of action, but the driver was not intoxicated at the time of purchase in the case in question.
In 10 additional states the courts have allowed common-law actions on particular facts,3 and in six of these 19 states 4 there has been civil damage or “dram shop” *744statutes comparable to sec. 176.35, or secs. 176.26 and 176.28, Stats., but such statutes did not pre-empt the field and prevent the court from finding common-law liability.
We reiterate, this court should in this case put into action what it said in Bielski v. Schulze, supra, page 11:
“Inherent in the common law is a dynamic principle which allows it to grow and to tailor itself to meet changing needs within the doctrine of stare decisis, which, if correctly understood, was not static and did not forever prevent the courts from reversing themselves or from applying principles of common law to new situations as the need arose. If this were not so, we must succumb to a rule that a judge should let others ‘long dead and unaware of the problems of the age in which he lives, do his thinking for him.’ Mr. Justice Douglas, Stare De-cisis, 49 Columbia Law Review (1949), 735, 736.”
and what the majority quoted from State v. Esser (1962), 16 Wis. 2d 567, 584, 115 N. W. 2d 505. This is not a new doctrine. Its expression goes back at least a generation. In Schwanke v. Garlt (1935), 219 Wis. 367, 371, 263 N. W. 176, this court said:
“While we are at all times bound to uphold the constitution of this state, and to give due effect to its paramount provisions, we may not ignore the fact ‘that the common law is susceptible of growth and adaptation to new circumstances and situations, and that courts have power to declare and effectuate what is the present rule in respect of a given subject without regard to the old rule. . .' . The common law is not immutable, but flexible, and upon its own principles adopts itself to varying conditions.’ ”
I must and do respectfully dissent from the decision of the majority.
I am authorized to state Messrs. Justices Wilkie and Heffernan join in this dissent.

 Hamm v. Carson City Nugget, Inc. (Nev. 1969), 450 Pac. 2d 358.

 Meade v. Freeman (1969), 93 Idaho 389, 462 Pac. 2d 54.

 Pratt v. Daly (1940), 55 Ariz. 535, 104 Pac. 2d 147, 130 A. L. R. 341; Hull v. Rund (1962), 150 Colo. 425, 374 Pac. 2d 351; Dodd v. Slater (1960), 101 Ga. App. 362, 114 S. E. 2d 170; Colligan v. Cousar (1963), 38 Ill. App. 2d 392, 187 N. E. 2d 292; Waynick v. Chicago’s Last Department Store (7th Cir. 1959), 269 Fed. 2d 322, 77 A. L. R. 2d 1260; Skinner v. Hughes (1850), 13 Mo. 440; Ibach v. Jackson (1934), 148 Or. 92, 35 Pac. 2d 672; South Carolina, Harrison v, Berkley (1847), 1 Strob. 525, 47 Am. Dec. 578; Swanson v. Ball (1940), 67 S. D. 161, 290 N. W. 482; McCue v. Klein (1883), 60 Tex. 168, 48 Am. Rep. 260.

 Colo. Rev. Stats., see. 41-2-3 (1963) ; Ill. Rev. Stats., ch. 43, sec. 135 (1967); 20 Mich. Comp. Laws, sec. 436.22 (1969 Supp.); 23A McKinney’s N. Y. Consol. Laws, General Obligations Law, sec. 11-101 (1968 Supp.); Or. Rev. Stats., sec. 30.730 (1967); S. D. Comp. Laws, sec. 35-4-38 (1968 Supp.).