Alumni Ass'n v. Sullivan

• Citation: 524 Pa. 356,572 A.2d 1209
• Parties: , 59 Ed. Law Rep. 1113 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, Delta Zeta Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity v. Van Kingsley SULLIVAN and Ronald C. Unterberger v. KAPPA CHAPTER OF SIGMA CHI FRATERNITY, Sigma Chi Fraternity and Bucknell University. Appeal of Ronald C. UNTERBERGER.
• Decision Date: 21 March 1990
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Page 1209

572 A.2d 1209

524 Pa. 356, 59 Ed. Law Rep. 1113

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, Delta Zeta Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity v. Van Kingsley SULLIVAN and Ronald C. Unterberger v. KAPPA CHAPTER OF SIGMA CHI FRATERNITY, Sigma Chi Fraternity and Bucknell University.

Appeal of Ronald C. UNTERBERGER.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued May 4, 1989.

Decided March 21, 1990.

F. Lee Shipman, James M. Sheehan, Harrisburg, for appellant.

David Lee Schwalm, Harrisburg, for appellee Alumni Ass'n, Delta Zeta Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.

Jonathan E. Butterfield, Robert A. Seiferth, Williamsport, for appellee Kappa Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Robert J. Menapace, Sunbury, for appellee Sigma Chi Fraternity.

David R. Bahl, Williamsport, for appellee Bucknell University.

Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, ZAPPALA and PAPADAKOS, JJ.

OPINION

NIX, Chief Justice.

The instant question under consideration in this appeal is whether a cause of action for negligence may be maintained against instant appellees for recovery of damages caused by an intoxicated minor to third parties absent any allegation that appellees served or furnished the alcoholic beverages to the minor. For the reasons that follow we agree that the complaint failed to set forth a valid cause of action against instant appellees and therefore affirm the order of the Superior Court.

On December 7, 1983, appellant Ronald C. Unterberger, an eighteen-year-old freshman at Bucknell University, attended a party held in his freshman dormitory, Trax Hall, and a second party hosted by the Kappa Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity at their fraternity house. At both parties alcohol was served and was consumed openly by Unterberger. The owner of the neighboring fraternity house, Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, subsequently filed a claim against Unterberger and a companion, Van Kingsley Sullivan, alleging that the two had negligently caused or failed to control a fire in the Lambda Chi Alpha house which resulted in over $400,000 in property damage. Unterberger filed a complaint to join Bucknell University, the Kappa Chapter of Sigma Chi, and Sigma Chi Fraternity as additional defendants, alleging that they were negligent in providing him, a minor, with alcoholic beverages at the parties he attended. Appellant alleged that this negligence proximately resulted in the conduct which caused the fire.

The trial court sustained appellees' preliminary objections and dismissed appellant's complaint against all three parties. The trial court found that under our holding in Congini v. Portersville Valve Co., 504 Pa. 157, 470 A.2d 515 (1983), appellees Sigma Chi and Bucknell were not social hosts who knowingly served intoxicants to a minor. The trial court further found that while Kappa Chapter may have been a social host, it was under no duty to protect against the unforeseeable risk of harm to the neighboring Lambda Chi Alpha house. Alumni Association, Delta Zeta Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity v. Sullivan, No. 407, 1985, slip op. at 2 (Court of Common Pleas, Civil Division, Union County 1987).

On appeal, the Superior Court affirmed the dismissal of the complaints against Bucknell and Sigma Chi. The court determined that an allegation that a defendant should have known alcohol was being served on its premises was insufficient to sustain a cause of action under Congini, supra, which hinges on the party having "knowingly furnished intoxicants to a [minor]." Alumni Association, Delta Zeta Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity v. Sullivan, 369 Pa.Super. 596, 535 A.2d 1095, 1099 (Superior Court, December 29, 1987). However, the dismissal of the complaint against Kappa Chapter was reversed; the Superior Court held that although Kappa Chapter was a social host, the risk of damage to a neighboring property as a result of Unterberger's intoxication was a foreseeable risk of Kappa Chapter's having provided him with alcohol. Id. 535 A.2d at 1100-1101. Unterberger sought review by this Court. ¹

In this appeal we are called upon to determine whether, under Congini v. Portersville, supra, and Orner v. Mallick, 515 Pa. 132, 527 A.2d 521 (1987), authority exists for finding a cause of action against Bucknell University and/or Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Unterberger alleges that the Superior Court erred in refusing to extend the rationale of Congini to the instant case. He contends that the Congini requirement that an alleged defendant "knowingly furnished" intoxicants to a minor is to be accorded a broad interpretation. He therefore claims that the court should have sustained his cause of action against parties who allegedly should have known that alcohol was being provided for minors on their premises.

Bucknell and Sigma Chi, on the other hand, claim that the social host doctrine as established in Congini is no broader than is indicated by its plain language. They therefore submit that the lower courts were correct in finding no cause of action had been stated in appellant's allegation that appellees "should have known" alcohol was being provided for minors. For the following reasons, we agree with appellees' position, and we affirm the order of the Superior Court.

It is a fundamental principle of tort law there cannot be a valid claim sounding in negligence unless there is a duty upon the defendant in favor of the plaintiff which has been breached. Marshall v. Port Authority of Allegheny County, --- Pa. ----, 568 A.2d 931 (1990); Morena v. South Hills Health System, 501 Pa. 634, 462 A.2d 680 (1983); Boyce v. United States Steel, 446 Pa. 226, 285 A.2d 459 (1971). The allegations as they refer to the University simply state appellant resided in a campus dormitory designated for the occupancy of freshmen, and the University employed Resident Advisors and a Resident Director who knew, or should have known, of this activity. The allegations do not contend that any agent, servant, employee or other personnel of Bucknell was in any way responsible for supplying, serving, dispensing or otherwise furnishing alcoholic beverages to appellant. As to the allegations relating to Sigma Chi, it is asserted that the fraternity was the reputed owner of the property where the party was held. ² There are no allegations the fraternity had actual knowledge of the activities allegedly occurring at the local chapter or of the ability of the national body to control said activities. Appellant herein would have us find Bucknell had a duty to supervise private social functions held on the University campus to ensure no one under the age of twenty-one consumed alcoholic beverages. They also contend the national fraternal organization should have a similar responsibility to monitor the activities of its Chapters.

Full appreciation of the impact of the step we are urged to take in this appeal requires a review of the development of this new cause of action. In Manning v. Andy, 454 Pa. 237, 310 A.2d 75 (1973), we expressly declined to use the provisions of the Liquor Code, 47 P.S. § 4-493(1), as creating a duty to support civil liability against a social host. Therein we were requested to find liability against an employee who became intoxicated during a party hosted by his employer for the employees, during which the employer "did furnish or supply intoxicating liquors or beverages which were consumed by ... [the employee] ... when he was in a state of visible intoxication." Id. at 239, 310 A.2d at 75. As a result of his state of intoxication, the employee was involved in an automobile accident resulting in injuries to the passenger in the employee's vehicle, a fellow employee. We dismissed this contention stating:

We find no error in the trial court's dismissal of appellant's complaint. Only licensed persons engaged in the sale of intoxicants have been held to be civilly liable to injured parties. Jardine v. Upper Darby Lodge No. 1973, 413 Pa. 626, 198 A.2d 550 (1964). Appellant asks us to impose civil liability on nonlicensed persons like appellees, who furnish intoxicants for no remuneration. We decline to do so. While appellant's proposal may have merit, we feel that a decision of this monumental nature is best left to the legislature.

Id. at 239, 310 A.2d 76 (1973).

Our decision in Manning articulated a fundamental policy decision that the Court would not use the provisions of the Liquor Code as a basis for imposing civil liability on nonlicensed persons who furnish intoxicants without remuneration. This position was premised upon the view that such judgments are best left to the General Assembly.

In Klein v. Raysinger, 504 Pa. 141, 470 A.2d 507 (1983), this Court refused to recognize a common law social host liability for serving alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person, whom the host knew, or should have known, intends to drive a motor vehicle. Notwithstanding the language of the majority opinion which premised the decision on the common law rule that it was the consumption of alcohol rather than the furnishing of it that is the proximate cause of any subsequent occurrence, the majority declined, in Klein, to premise a duty based upon section 493(1) of the Liquor Code, as urged by Chief Justice Roberts in his dissent. Id. at 149, 470 A.2d at 511.

The one exception to the general rule that liability under the Liquor Code will not be applied to the social host was first announced in Congini which was handed down on the same day as Klein. The basis for this exception has been explained by the Court in Orner v. Mallick, 515 Pa. 132, 527 A.2d 521 (1987). In that decision the Court stated:

[I]n Congini we held that a social host "was negligent per se in serving alcohol to the point of intoxication to a person less than twenty-one years of age, and that they can be held liable for injuries proximately resulting from the minor's intoxication." Id., 504 Pa. at 163, 470 A.2d at 518. In arriving at this conclusion we emphasized that in Pennsylvania "our legislature has made a legislative...