Sagadin v. Ripper
| Decision Date | 19 December 1985 |
| Docket Number | DODGE-CHRYSLE,R |
| Citation | 175 Cal.App.3d 1141,221 Cal.Rptr. 675 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Charles Joseph SAGADIN, Plaintiff, Respondent, Appellant, Cross-Appellant and Cross-Respondent, v. Kenneth J. RIPPER, Jr., Defendant, Respondent, and Cross-Respondent, Chuck Swift Dodge-Chrysler, Defendant, Respondent and Cross-Appellant, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., a California Corporation, Toyota Motor Co. Ltd., Toyota Auto Body Co., Toyota Motor Sales Co. and Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample, Inc., Defendants and Respondents, Robert W. Boal, Bruce Boal and Lillian Boal, Defendants, Appellants and Cross-Respondents. Kenneth J. RIPPER, Jr., Plaintiff and Cross-Respondent, v. Charles Joseph SAGADIN, Defendant and Cross-Respondent, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc., Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd., Chuck Swift Dodge-Chrysler, and Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, Inc., Defendants and Respondents, Robert W. Boal, Bruce Boal and Lillian Boal, Defendants, Appellants and Cross-Respondents. CHUCK SWIFTobert W. Boal, Bruce Boal, Lillian Boal, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd., Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd., Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., Cross-Complainants and Appellants, v. Charles Joseph SAGADIN and Kenneth J. Ripper, Jr., Cross-Defendants and Respondents. Charles Joseph SAGADIN and Kenneth J. Ripper, Jr., Plaintiffs, Appellants and Cross-Respondents, v. Robert W. BOAL, Bruce Boal and Lillian Boal, Defendants, Respondents and Cross-Appellants. Civ. 20820. |
O.J. Ramsey and David A. Wallis, Ramsey, Morrison & Keddy, Sacramento, for defendants, appellants, cross-appellants and cross-respondents.
J. Ross Peabody, John D. Smith, Donahue & Calaham, Stumbos & Mason, Anthony D. Osmundson and William Wilson, Weintraub, Genshlea, Hardy, Erich & Brown, Jerome Varanini, Memering & DeMers, William O. Morris, McDonald, Saeltzer, Morris & Caulfield, Sacramento, Dennis Gildea, Moore, Clifford, Wolfe, Larson & Trutner, Oakland, Gary T. Walker and Elliot L. Bien, Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon, San Francisco, for defendants and respondents.
In this case we add our voice to the appellate chorus descanting that the 1978 legislation eliminating social host liability for injuries resulting from the intoxication of a guest is not retroactive. Here a negligence cause of action was pursued against social hosts under Business and Professions Code section 25658, which makes it a misdemeanor to furnish alcohol to a person under twenty-one years of age. We hold that the 1978 legislation applies prospectively only and consequently does not immunize social hosts found civilly liable for injuries resulting from an accident occurring before the January 1, 1979, effective date of the legislation.
We further conclude that the adoption of comparative negligence in California eliminated the need for the special class exception to the bar of contributory negligence in cases of statutory violations. We hold therefore that unless the Legislature expressly states otherwise, a plaintiff's contributory fault must be apportioned even when the defendant violates a statute which was arguably intended to protect plaintiff against his own negligence. Consequently, the social hosts here were entitled to have plaintiffs' negligence apportioned under the principles of comparative negligence.
Finally, we consider and resolve issues relating to the indemnity rights of the parties.
The accident in question occurred at about 1:20 a.m. on October 28, 1978, in a Toyota Land Cruiser recently purchased by plaintiff Charles Sagadin from defendant Chuck Swift Dodge-Chrysler (Swift). According to the conflicting testimony, it was either being driven by Sagadin or plaintiff Kenneth Ripper, both of whom were in the front seats; Ripper and Sagadin both denied driving the vehicle and each claimed the other was driving. Gary Schlauch, the third plaintiff, was a passenger in the back seat. At the time of the accident Ripper and Schlauch were 19 years of age while Sagadin was 20. Both Ripper and Sagadin were legally under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash. Ripper's blood alcohol content was .19; Sagadin's was either .13, according to the CHP analysis, or .15, according to expert toxicologists called as witnesses by plaintiffs and the defendants Boals.
The driver had proceeded south on Park Boulevard in West Sacramento, ran a stop sign at Park's intersection with Stone Boulevard at 35 to 40 miles per hour, and turned right, or west, onto Stone. In that right turn the vehicle began a centrifugal skid to the left followed by a centrifugal skid to the right. The vehicle straightened out and headed essentially west on Stone near the end of an "S" turn maneuver when it tipped over in the street onto its right side. It had begun to roll over when its windshield area hit a tree. Ripper sustained head injuries. Sagadin and Schlauch were rendered quadriplegic in the accident.
A week or two before the accident Bruce Boal asked his parents, Robert and Lillian Boal, if he and his friends could have a Halloween party at the Boal home on October 27, 1978. Mr. and Mrs. Boal agreed to allow the party. Some written invitations were sent, but Bruce invited the three plaintiffs orally. The invitations neither included a request that guests bring their own alcohol nor indicated that beer or other alcohol would be provided. Mrs. Boal helped with food and decorations for the party.
The party was to be held in the Boals' family room where Mr. Boal had previously installed a beer dispenser for his own use. The dispenser accommodated a 15 1/2 gallon "keg" of beer. Bruce did not ask his father if he and his friends could use the dispenser for the party, but Mr. Boal told Bruce that if they drank any of his beer, it would have to be replaced. Before the party, Bruce had arranged for the purchase of two half kegs of Coors Beer for the party from Country Maid, a nearby convenience store where Bruce and others in the group of friends had worked in the past and, in fact, where one of the group, David Hogan, was working at the time of the accident.
The party began at about 7 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Boal left the house before the party began and went to the home of some neighbors. They planned to meet their daughter and her husband there later in the evening, change into costumes of their own, and return to their home to join in the party.
Before the party began, there was a keg of Mr. Boal's beer already in his dispenser, one-third to one-half gone. The balance of this keg was consumed by the 35-50 people at the party. The first full keg was picked up at Country Maid by one of Bruce's friends, and Bruce connected it to the dispenser at about 8:30 p.m. This keg was also consumed at the party. It was empty at about the time the party broke up. Bruce testified that Sagadin went to Country Maid to get the second full keg and returned with it to the Boal home after almost everyone had left the party. This second Country Maid keg was not tapped or consumed at the party.
Ripper and Sagadin denied drinking anything of an alcoholic nature before arriving at the Boals' home. Each testified that he served himself from the dispenser during the party whenever he wanted more beer. None of the Boals served beer to Ripper or Sagadin or anyone else. Neither Ripper nor Sagadin could say how much beer he drank from Mr. Boal's partial keg which was in place when the party began or how much beer he drank from the first Country Maid keg, which was installed at about 8:30 p.m.
However, both Ripper and Sagadin drank some beer during the evening which did not come from either keg in the dispenser. Bruce Boal saw Sagadin and Ripper drinking a bottle of Heineken beer outside the house earlier in the evening. At one point during the party Ripper left and went to the home of Elzie Linder, another of the friends in the group, where he drank two 12-ounce bottles of Heineken provided by Linder. Sagadin also went to Linder's place and had one 12-ounce bottle of Heineken.
It appears that the party was over and everyone was gone from the Boals' by no later than 11:30 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Boal returned to the party around 10 p.m. There was no evidence either of them was even aware of the number of vehicles parked out front. Mr. Boal had not seen the land cruiser and did not know Ripper or Sagadin was driving. In the house Mrs. Boal estimated there were about 65 people at the party. She had understood there would only be about 24 there. She asked Bruce to end the party.
After the party broke up, Ripper, Sagadin, Schlauch, and Scott Gleba left in Sagadin's land cruiser to get and drink more beer. They went to World Wines in West Sacramento where either Ripper or Gleba bought more beer. According to Ripper, they bought either two six packs or a case of Heineken beer in bottles; according to Gleba they bought one or two six packs. Gleba's testimony was uncontradicted that Ripper and Sagadin opened and began drinking beer in the land cruiser as they left World Wines. They went to a spot on the levee of the Sacramento River and continued to drink beer. The evidence showed that at least Sagadin and probably Ripper each had at least two bottles of the beer purchased at World Wines.
Plaintiffs left the river and returned to West Sacramento, where they saw Bruce Boal in his truck and John Dorris in his truck on Deerwood Street, where they all stopped in their vehicles to talk. They all decided to go to Eppie's in West Sacramento for breakfast. The three vehicles proceeded in tandem with Bruce's vehicle first, Dorris's vehicle second, and the Sagadin land cruiser last. They all proceeded south on Park and turned west on Stone. When Bruce realized something was wrong, he turned around on Stone and returned to discover the accident. As we...
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