Court Opinion

ID: 9771076
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:30:53.384358+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:24.688162
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. Before the case of Shannon v. Wilson, 329 Ark. 143, 947 S.W.2d 349 (1997), this court under its common-law authority held that no business licensed to sell alcohol was liable for any accident and injuries following its illegal sale of liquor to a minor. Such nonliability was primarily based on the fact that Arkansas has no laws that expressly imposed civil liability on the seller, and the further rationale that it was the minor’s consumption, not the sale, of the alcohol that was the sole proximate cause of the ensuing accident and injuries. See, e.g., Carr v. Turner, 238 Ark. 889, 385 S.W.2d 656 (1965). Concerning the proximate cause issue, the Shannon court explained and then concluded it could not find any basis for determining that the voluntary consumption by the minor was the proximate cause of the resulting damages or injuries. Id. at 156—158, 947 S.W.2d at 355-357. That being said, it also follows that an intoxicated patron’s voluntary consumption of alcohol, illegally sold him by a licensed alcohol permit holder, is not necessarily, as a matter of law, the sole proximate cause of an accident that followed that sale. In sum, if a licensed liquor-permit holder who illegally sells alcohol to a minor can factually be found liable for injuries ensuing from the sale to a minor, that licensed holder could also be factually found liable for injuries resulting from the illegal sale of alcohol to an intoxicated patron. To hold otherwise would render Shannon meaningless. In my view, the Shannon decision simply recognized that this court’s earlier cases offered an invalid and artificial immunity from suit to licensed alcohol permittees who had made illegal liquor sales to minors as well as to intoxicated patrons. In doing so, those earlier decisions improperly ignored or failed to discuss relevant general negligence principles. For example, where a licensed alcohol holder violates a statute and regulation by selling alcohol to an intoxicated person, such is evidence of negligence which should be considered by a jury along with other facts and circumstances in the case. AMI Civ. 3rd 601. Moreover, when the acts of two or more persons work together as proximate causes of damage to another, each of those persons may be found to be liable. In a case like the present one, both the liquor vendor’s and intoxicated person’s acts should be considered together when determining each person’s fault. This is true regardless of the relative degree of fault between them. See AMI Civ. 3rd 502. Our negligence law defines proximate cause as being that cause, which “in a natural and continuous sequence, produces damage,” and such a cause is usually a question for the jury.1 AMI Civ. 3rd 501. Finally, a defendant has the burden of proof to show that following any act on his part, an event intervened (such as a person’s consumption of alcohol) which in itself caused damage completely independent of the defendant’s conduct. AMI Civ. 3rd 503. It seems clear to me that when alcohol is illegally sold to an intoxicated person, a fact issue, at the very least, arises as to whether the licensed liquor holder should share in having created a situation that foreseeably could have resulted in an accident and ensuing injuries. In early cases, this court utilized its common-law authority to hold licensed liquor vendors free from liability where accidents and injuries resulted after illegal sales to minors and intoxicated patrons. However, if this court is to inject itself into these illegal liquor-sale matters via the common law, that common-law application should include the court’s adherence to general negligence principles and Arkansas’s jury instructions noted above. If the court does so, a licensed liquor vendor would not as a matter of law be immune from suit as has been the result in this court’s prior cases. For these added reasons, I join the majority opinion. The majority opinion has satisfactorily and conclusively set forth the duty-of-care issue by discussing the General Assembly’s statutory enactments relating to the holders of alcohol licenses. Thus, I need say no more on this point except to emphasize that it is this aspect of the case that differentiates it from the social-host situation. Suffice it to say, I agree with that distinction.   Although proximate causation is usually a question for the jury, where reasonable minds cannot differ, a question of law is presented for determination by the court. Wilson v. Evans, 284 Ark. 101, 679 S.W.2d 205 (1984).