Ely v. Murphy

• Decision Date: 12 April 1988
• Docket Number: No. 13228,13228
• Citation: 207 Conn. 88,540 A.2d 54
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Wayne M. ELY, Administrator (ESTATE OF Christopher ELY), et al. v. C. Connor MURPHY, et al.

Page 54

540 A.2d 54

207 Conn. 88

Wayne M. ELY, Administrator (ESTATE OF Christopher ELY), et al. v. C. Connor MURPHY, et al.

No. 13228.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Jan. 7, 1988.

Decided April 12, 1988.

Richard A. Bieder, with whom was Carey B. Reilly, for appellants (plaintiffs).

J. Kevin Golger, with whom, on the brief, was Paul V. McNamara, for appellee (named defendant).

Before PETERS, C.J., and SHEA, GLASS, COVELLO and HULL, JJ.

COVELLO, Associate Justice.

The plaintiff, in his capacity as administrator of the estate of his deceased son, Christopher Ely, and in his individual capacity instituted this action in four counts seeking damages in connection with his son's wrongful death. These tort claims arose out of an incident in which C. Connor and Virginia Murphy were the social hosts at a high school graduation party given at their home and, following the party, an eighteen year old guest, Thomas P. Foley, struck the decedent, also a guest, with an automobile, fatally injuring him.

The jury might reasonably have found that the named defendant, C. Connor Murphy (defendant), ¹ acted as host for a high school graduation open house to which the entire class of over four hundred young people was invited. His son was a member of the graduating class. The defendant purchased twelve half kegs of beer for the event.

The party began at 8 p.m. on the evening of June 12, 1983, and lasted until approximately 3:30 a.m. the following morning. Cars were parked all along the roadway leading to the defendant's home. The defendant stationed a youth at the entrance to the party to collect three dollars from each arriving guest. Those attending ranged in age from fifteen to nineteen. The legal drinking age at the time was nineteen. ² Three kegs were simultaneously tapped and kept open during the party.

There were no police or security personnel present. There were no bartenders. No one monitored the beer consumption nor was there anyone present at the end of the evening to check the condition of departing guests. There was no specific time when the party was to end.

At approximately 11 p.m., the police arrived at the party in response to neighbors' complaints of erratic driving and teenage drinking. The defendant assured the police that he was taking the operators' licenses and keys of those who were driving and that in order to leave the party they had to see him.

The defendant saw and spoke with Thomas Foley on at least two occasions that evening. The young man, age eighteen, was a guest at the party and was very drunk. Around 1 a.m., the defendant asked Foley where his keys were and Foley responded that they were in the car. The defendant never obtained the keys.

At about 3:30 a.m., witnesses observed Foley drunk and staggering into his mother's station wagon. Moments later the vehicle struck Christopher Ely, another guest, fatally injuring him. The accident happened at the side of the road within one hundred yards of the defendant's driveway.

The first three counts of the complaint were directed against the hosts, the Murphys. The first count purported to set forth a cause of action under General Statutes § 30-102, the dram shop act. ³ The second count alleged common law negligence. The third count sought recovery based upon the Murphys' reckless and wanton misconduct. The fourth count was directed against Thomas P. Foley and his parents and alleged both statutory and common law negligence.

The defendant Murphys filed a motion to strike those portions of the second count of the complaint that alleged the negligent service of alcohol to those attending the party, including the defendant Thomas Foley. ⁴ The court, Lavery, J., granted the motion to strike, concluding that in Connecticut no common law cause of action exists for negligently furnishing alcoholic beverages. The case was subsequently withdrawn as to the Foleys and the matter was thereafter tried to a jury on (1) the dram shop claim, (2) the remaining allegations of negligence in the second count, and (3) the third count of reckless and wanton misconduct. At the close of the defendants' case the court, Fuller, J., granted the defendants' motion for a directed verdict as to the negligence count, concluding that the remaining allegations of negligence were inextricably intertwined with the claims concerning the service of alcohol. The dram shop claim was then withdrawn, as was the claim against Virginia Murphy, so that the case was submitted to the jury for their consideration only on the allegations concerning reckless and wanton misconduct by C. Connor Murphy. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant.

The plaintiff claims error in the court's (1) granting the motion to strike portions of the second count, (2) granting the motion for a directed verdict as to the second count, (3) denying his motion to set aside the verdict, and (4) refusing to charge on negligence per se in connection with the claim of reckless and wanton misconduct. We find error in part and order a new trial.

The stricken portions of the second count purported to state a common law cause of action in tort based on negligence in serving alcohol to minors who were known to be or should have been known to be intoxicated. While such acts may constitute the breach of a duty owed to others, the cause of action in a variety of factual settings has uniformly failed for the reason that the subsequent injury has been held to have been proximately caused by the intervening act of the immoderate consumer whose voluntary and imprudent consumption of the beverage brings about intoxication and the subsequent injury. Boehm v. Kish, 201 Conn. 385, 389, 517 A.2d 624 (1986); Kowal v. Hofher, 181 Conn. 355, 357-58, 436 A.2d 1 (1980); Slicer v. Quigley, 180 Conn. 252, 255-56, 429 A.2d 855 (1980); Nelson v. Steffens, 170 Conn. 356, 358-59, 365 A.2d 1174 (1976); Moore v. Bunk, 154 Conn. 644, 647, 228 A.2d 510 (1967); Nolan v. Morelli, 154 Conn. 432, 436, 226 A.2d 383 (1967). " 'At common law it was the general rule that no tort cause of action lay against one who furnished whether by sale or gift, intoxicating liquor to a person who thereby voluntarily became intoxicated and in consequence of his intoxication injured the person or property either of himself or of another. The reason generally given for the rule was that the proximate cause of the intoxication was not the furnishing of the liquor, but the consumption of it by the purchaser or donee. The rule was based on the obvious fact that one could not become intoxicated by reason of liquor furnished him if he did not drink it.' Nolan v. Morelli, supra, 436-37, 226 A.2d 383; see also 45 Am.Jur.2d, Intoxicating Liquors §§ 553-55; 48 C.J.S., Intoxicating Liquors § 430; 75 A.L.R.2d 833." Slicer v. Quigley, supra.

The proposition that intoxication results from the voluntary conduct of the person who consumes intoxicating liquor assumes a knowing and intelligent exercise of choice, and for that reason is more applicable to adults than to minors. With respect to minors, various legislative enactments have placed them at a disability in the context of alcohol consumption. General Statutes § 30-86 provides that with limited exceptions the social host who delivers liquor to a minor shall be criminally liable. ⁵ Further, General Statutes § 30-89 provides that a minor who purchases liquor or even possesses it in a public place is also criminally liable. ⁶ These and similar statutes ⁷ reflect a continuing and growing public awareness and concern that children as a class are simply incompetent by reason of their youth and inexperience to deal responsibly with the effects of alcohol. The legislature has seen fit to amend upward the minimum drinking age three times within the short span of just six years. ⁸

This growing public awareness, as reflected by the legislature's frequent, recent amendments to the applicable statutes, causes us to conclude that common law precepts in this area also warrant reexamination. "Experience can and often does demonstrate that a rule, once believed sound, needs modification to serve justice better.... The adaptability of the common law to the changing needs of passing time has been one of its most beneficent characteristics.... If, however, stare decisis is to continue to serve the cause of stability and certainly in the law--a condition indispensable to any well-ordered system of jurisprudence--a court should not overrule its earlier decisions unless the most cogent reasons and inescapable logic require it." (Citations omitted.) Herald Publishing Co. v. Bill, 142 Conn. 53, 62, 111 A.2d 4 (1955); Ozyck v. D'Atri, 206 Conn. 473, 482-83, 538 A.2d 697 (1988) (Healey, J., concurring). We have deemed it appropriate, in other contexts, to depart from common law precedents where we have found compelling reasons and logic for doing so. See, e.g., Moore v. McNamara, 201 Conn. 16, 513 A.2d 660 (1986) (paternal duty of support of minor children); O'Connor v. O'Connor, 201 Conn. 632, 519 A.2d 13 (1986) (where strict application of common law rule of lex loci delicti undermines important state policy, we refuse to apply it).

In view of the legislative determination that minors are incompetent to assimilate responsibly the effects of alcohol and lack the legal capacity to do so, logic dictates that their consumption of alcohol does not, as a matter of law, constitute the intervening act necessary to break the chain of proximate causation and does not, as a matter of law, insulate one who provides alcohol to minors from liability for ensuing injury. To the extent that our earlier rulings in Slicer v. Quigley, supra; Nelson v. Steffens, supra, and Moore v. Bunk, supra, indicate otherwise, we herewith overrule them. Other jurisdictions that have considered the problem of negligent service of alcohol to minors have similarly recognized that "[e]xperience can and often does demonstrate that a rule, once believed...