Blesz v. Weisbrod, 87-920

• Decision Date: 15 June 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-920,87-920
• Citation: Blesz v. Weisbrod, 424 N.W.2d 451 (Iowa 1988)
• Parties: Mary BLESZ, Appellee, v. Wade WEISBROD, Wayne Weisbrod, and Rob Bathen, Defendants. Wade WEISBROD and Wayne Weisbrod, Appellees, v. Rob BATHEN, Appellant, Denise Casbon, Intervenor-Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 451

424 N.W.2d 451

Mary BLESZ, Appellee, v. Wade WEISBROD, Wayne Weisbrod, and Rob Bathen, Defendants.

Wade WEISBROD and Wayne Weisbrod, Appellees, v. Rob BATHEN, Appellant, Denise Casbon, Intervenor-Appellee.

No. 87-920.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 15, 1988.

Michael A. McEnroe of Mosier, Thomas, Beatty, Dutton, Braun & Staack, Waterloo, for appellees Wade Weisbrod and Wayne Weisbrod.

Ronald L. Ricklefs and Michael E. Sheehy, Cedar Rapids, for appellee Mary Blesz.

Mark Mossman of Mossman & Mossman, Vinton, for appellee-intervenor Denise Casbon.

Wendell A. Holmes of Beecher, Beecher, Holmes & Rathert, Waterloo, for appellant.

Considered en banc.

LARSON, Justice.

The issue in this case is quite straightforward: What is the scope of the legislature's amendment to our liquor control statute, Iowa Code § 123.49(1) (1987), which eliminated the social host liability recognized by this court in Clark v. Mincks, 364 N.W.2d 226 (Iowa 1985) (liability for furnishing liquor to intoxicated social guest)? Language in the amendment declares that consumption of alcohol, not the furnishing of it, is the proximate cause of damages. Does this, in effect, abrogate proximate cause in all liquor-furnishing cases, even those not involving social host liability under section 123.49(1)? The district court apparently concluded that it did not, and in this interlocutory appeal, we agree.

The following facts were presented to the district court: Rob Bathen, nineteen years old, was approached by a high school friend, Chad Allen, who was sixteen. Allen asked Bathen to purchase a twelve-pack of beer and two four-pack wine coolers. Bathen agreed to do so and entered a convenience store with money given to him by Allen. He purchased the beer and wine coolers then carried them out of the store and handed them to Allen. At the time, Allen was sitting in the rear seat of a vehicle owned by Wayne Weisbrod. Bathen knew that Wade Weisbrod, who was sitting behind the wheel of the car, was a minor. Several hours later, the Weisbrod vehicle went out of control while traveling at a high rate of speed, resulting in injuries to Mary Blesz and Denise Casbon.

Mary Blesz sued Wade Weisbrod as operator, and Wayne Weisbrod, as owner of the vehicle. Weisbrods then filed a third-party petition against Bathen, asking for contribution on the ground that Bathen purchased alcoholic beverages at the request of persons known by Bathen to be minors. Mary Blesz then amended her petition naming Bathen as an additional defendant based on the same grounds.

Bathen answered, then filed a motion for summary judgment on the ground that any civil claim against him for furnishing alcohol to a minor was barred by a 1986 amendment to Iowa Code section 123.49 (1985). The court overruled Bathen's motion, and this interlocutory appeal followed.

Liability in the present case is based on Bathen's furnishing of alcohol to minors, in violation of Iowa Code section 123.47. That section provides:

No person shall sell, give, or otherwise supply alcoholic liquor or beer to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that person to be under legal age, and no person or persons under legal age shall individually or jointly have alcoholic liquor or beer in their possession or control....

Under Lewis v. State, 256 N.W.2d 181, 191-92 (Iowa 1977), and Haafke v. Mitchell, 347 N.W.2d 381, 388, 390-91 (Iowa 1984) (Justice Uhlenhopp concurring thus giving majority vote to this holding), furnishing of alcohol to a minor by a nonlicensee is actionable, thus departing from a long line of prior cases which had held as a matter of law that the proximate cause of damage by an intoxicated person was the consumption of the alcohol, not the furnishing of it. See, e.g., Cowman v. Hansen, 250 Iowa 358, 369-70, 92 N.W.2d 682, 688 (1958).

While this court has recently rejected common-law liability of licensees for furnishing alcoholic beverages to minors, e.g., Fuhrman v. Total Petroleum, Inc., 398 N.W.2d 807 (Iowa 1987); Connolly v. Conlan, 371 N.W.2d 832 (Iowa 1985), those cases must be distinguished. Unlike the present case, Fuhrman and Connolly confronted the obstacle of legislative preemption; since the defendants in those cases were licensees, it was held that the legislature provided the sole basis for a tort action against them in the form of our dramshop statute. Fuhrman, 398 N.W.2d at 809; Connolly, 371 N.W.2d at 833.

Even after Fuhrman and Connolly, therefore, the liability of nonlicensees for sale to minors, recognized in Lewis and Haafke, remained intact. In the present case, however, Bathen relies on the amendment to Iowa Code section 123.49 to support his argument that, as a matter of law, the proximate cause of such damages is the consumption of the alcohol, not the furnishing of it. Section 123.49, now provides:

Miscellaneous prohibitions.

1. A...