Rangel v. Parkhurst

• Decision Date: 24 July 2001
• Docket Number: (AC 20426)
• Citation: 64 Conn. App. 372,779 A.2d 1277
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: YAROSLAVA RANGEL ET AL. v. DOUGLAS PARKHURST ET AL.

64 Conn. App. 372

779 A.2d 1277

YAROSLAVA RANGEL ET AL. v. DOUGLAS PARKHURST ET AL.

(AC 20426)

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued February 23, 2001.

Officially released July 24, 2001.

Schaller, Flynn and O'Connell, Js. Gerald M. Beaudoin, for the appellant (named plaintiff).

Andrew J. O'Keefe, with whom was Joseph M. Busher, Jr., for the appellees (named defendant et al.).

Opinion

FLYNN, J.

The plaintiff Yaroslava Rangel¹ appeals from the summary judgment rendered in favor of the defendants, Douglas Parkhurst and Judy Parkhurst.² On appeal, the plaintiff argues that the trial court improperly (1) granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the basis of its finding that the defendants were neither purveyors nor servers of alcohol to a minor and (2) determined that, as a matter of law, parents who know of and acquiesce in their minor child's storage of alcoholic beverages in their home are not liable for damages subsequently caused by the intoxicated minor. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The following facts are relevant to our resolution of the plaintiffs appeal. The plaintiff brought this action seeking damages for injuries that she and her son, Emmanuel Rangel, sustained in a two car accident involving the defendants' son, Michael Parkhurst (Michael). Michael was twenty years old at the time of the accident and, therefore, was not of legal drinking age. He had purchased beer from a package store two weeks prior to the accident. The defendants' home has two refrigerators. One is in the kitchen, and one is in the basement. Michael stored the beer in the basement refrigerator until the morning of the accident, when he removed it from his parents' home and engaged in a course of drinking and driving that culminated in the collision involving the plaintiffs automobile.

The plaintiff, in her revised complaint, alleged that Michael was a minor, age twenty, residing with his parents, the defendants. The plaintiff further alleged that (1) the defendants stored and made alcoholic beverages available to Michael, (2) the defendants knew or had reason to know that Michael's consumption of alcohol outside the home involved the use and operation of an automobile they had "assisted" in making available to him, and (3) on May 16, 1995, Michael removed substantially all of the alcoholic beverages from the defendants' basement refrigerator, and then, after drinking throughout the day and evening, operated his automobile. The plaintiff alleged that because Michael became impaired or intoxicated, his car collided with the plaintiff's car, causing the plaintiff personal injuries.

The plaintiffs complaint further alleges that the defendants were negligent in one or more of the following ways: "A. They stored and made available alcoholic beverages to their minor son; B. They assisted their minor son in obtaining and maintaining operation of an automobile when they knew or had reason to know he was operating same while impaired or intoxicated; C. They failed to instruct their minor son on the dangers of operating an automobile while impaired although they had ample opportunity to do so and had a special relationship enabling them to do so; D. They stored and made available alcoholic beverage to their minor son knowing or having reason to know he would be consuming same in public places; [and] E. The defendants delivered and gave alcohol to a minor for consumption at a time and place when said minor would not be accompanied by a parent or guardian, in violation of [General Statutes] § 30-86. "³ On October 27, 1997, the defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, contending that (1) they did not owe a duty to the plaintiff and (2) there was no basis on which to proceed against them on theories of negligent service of alcohol to a minor, and negligent entrustment of a motor vehicle or vicarious liability. On April 7, 1998, the court, Martin, J., denied the motion, finding that "[a]n issue of material fact exists as to whether the defendants provided or made alcohol available to their minor child."

The defendants filed a renewed motion for summary judgment, dated March 15, 1999, which the court, Parker, J., granted on December 7, 1999. In its memorandum of decision, the court found that "the [defendants'] knowledge of and/or acquiescence in Michael's storage of the beer in their home may be a fact issue which is genuinely in dispute. That fact is not a material fact." The court concluded that "the law is not as [the plaintiff] would have it; parents are not liable to third persons even though they knew of and acquiesced in the minor child's keeping alcoholic beverages in their home." The court further concluded that "[i]n no sense can the [defendants] be considered to have supplied or purveyed the offending beer to Michael." The plaintiff thereafter appealed from the judgment of the court.

I

The plaintiff first claims that the court improperly granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the basis of its findings that the defendants were not purveyors of alcohol nor had they served alcohol to a minor. The plaintiff argues that the defendants' conduct falls within the broad interpretation of purveyor as discussed by our Supreme Court in Ely v. Murphy, 207 Conn. 88, 540 A.2d 54 (1988), and Bohan v. Last, 236 Conn. 670, 674 A.2d 839 (1996), because the defendants "affirmatively acted" when they made alcohol available to Michael by allowing him to store beer in their basement refrigerator. We disagree.

"Our standard of review of a court's decision to grant a motion for summary judgment is well established. Practice Book § 384 [now § 17-49] provides that summary judgment shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, affidavits and any other proof submitted show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.... Miller v. United Technologies Corp., 233 Conn. 732, 744-45, 660 A.2d 810 (1995). In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the trial court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.... Tarzia v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 52 Conn. App. 136, 145, 727 A.2d 219 (1999), appeal dismissed, 254 Conn. 786, 759 A.2d 502 (2000).

"On appeal, [w]e must decide whether the trial court erred in determining that there was no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.... Avon Meadow Condominium Assn., Inc. v. Bank of Boston Connecticut, 50 Conn. App. 688, 693, 719 A.2d 66, cert. denied, 247 Conn. 946, 723 A.2d 320 (1998).... [O]ur review is plenary and we must decide whether [the trial court's] conclusions are legally and logically correct and find support in the facts that appear in the record.... Gateway Co. v. DiNoia, 232 Conn. 223, 229, 654 A. 2d 342 (1995). On appeal, however, the burden is on the opposing party to demonstrate that the trial court's decision to grant the movant's summary judgment motion was clearly erroneous. 2830 Whitney Avenue Corp. v. Heritage Canal Development Associates, Inc., 33 Conn. App. 563, 567, 636 A.2d 1377 (1994)." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Saunders v. Stigers, 62 Conn. App. 138, 145-46, 773 A.2d 971 (2001).

To recover on a theory of negligence, the plaintiff must establish that the defendants owed a duty to her and breached that duty. See Leavenworth v. Mathes, 38 Conn. App. 476, 479, 661 A.2d 632 (1995). "The existence of a duty is a question of law.... Only if such a duty is found to exist does the trier of fact then determine whether the defendant[s] violated that duty in the particular situation at hand." (Citation omitted.) Shore v. Stonington, 187 Conn. 147, 151-52, 444 A.2d 1379 (1982).

Our Supreme Court in Ely v. Murphy, supra, 207 Conn. 89-90, addressed a situation in which parental social hosts actually provided alcohol to minors at a graduation "keg" party for a fee of $3. As a result, one of the minor guests, who was intoxicated, struck and killed another guest while driving his vehicle after leaving the party. Id., 90. The court concluded that "a social host or other purveyor of alcohol will be liable, to the minor served or to innocent third parties thereafter injured, if a court or a jury finds, as a matter of fact, a proximate cause relationship between the service of alcohol and the damages ensuing from the minor's consumption of the alcohol."⁴Bohan v. Last, supra, 236 Conn. 677, citing Ely v. Murphy, supra, 97.

"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.... [See] 45 Am. Jur. 2d, Intoxicating Liquors §§ 553-55; 48 C.J.S., Intoxicating Liquors § 430; 75 A.L.R.2d 833....

"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." (Citation omitted.) Ely v. Murphy, supra, 207 Conn. 93.

The Ely court created a limited exception to the common-law rule that no cause of action in negligence arises from the furnishing of alcohol to intoxicated adults by holding that the consumption of alcohol by a minor does not "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." Id., 95....