Weymire v. Wolfe
| Decision Date | 08 December 1879 |
| Parties | CHISTOPHER WEYMIRE, ADMINISTRATOR, APPELLANT, v. J. J. WOLFE, APPELLEE. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Fremont circuit court.
The plaintiff is administrator of the estate of Joseph Dunn, deceased, and brings this action to recover for injuries alleged to have been caused to said Dunn by the defendant, whereby Dunn lost his life. The averments of the petition are, in substance, that the defendant, at the time of the acts complained of, was the keeper of a saloon; that Dunn was an habitual frequenter of the saloon; that the defendant sold him intoxicating liquor, which caused him to be intoxicated; and that while Dunn was in a state of helpless and unconscious intoxication, caused by the wrongs of the defendant, he, the defendant, wrongfully expelled Dunn from his saloon at a late hour of the night; and that Dunn, being thus intoxicated, died of cold and exposure. There was a trial by jury, and evidence was introduced by the plaintiff tending to support the allegations of the petition. Afterwards the court gave two instructions in these words:
1. The plaintiff in this suit, as administrator of the estate of f Joseph Dunn, seeks to recover damages which he alleges to have accrued to said estate by reason of the sale by the defendant to Dunn, in his life-time, of intoxicating liquors, contrary to law.
2. The evidence shows, without dispute, that whatever purchases of liquor, if any, were made by Dunn were made by him voluntarily, and no recovery can be had on account thereof by his administrator, because of his contribution to the injury, if any followed, and the laws of this state furnish no right of recovery in such case. Your verdict will, therefore, be for the defendant.”
Verdict having been rendered accordingly, and judgment thereon, the plaintiff appeals.Stow & Hammond, for appellant.
Wynn & Wynn, for appellee.
Whether, if Dunn had died solely from the use of the liquor, he would be deemed as having so far contributed to his death by his voluntary acts as to preclude a recovery, we need not determine.
The petition states, and the evidence tended to show, that Dunn was expelled from the saloon at a late hour of the night, drunk and unconscious, and died by reason of exposure and cold. If it should be conceded that Dunn contributed to his death by drinking until he became drunk and unconscious, it would not follow that the plaintiff would not be entitled to recover. If a...
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Hoff v. Elkhorn Bar, Case No. 1:08-cv-071.
...to an intoxicated passenger to ensure that he was taken safely to the railway yards or at least to avoid injuring him); Weymire v. Wolfe, 52 Iowa 533, 3 N.W. 541 (1879) (finding that a bar had a duty to an unconscious and intoxicated patron it ejected at a late hour of In Hovermale v. Berke......
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Kelly v. Sinclair Oil Corp.
...be a circumstance giving rise to such a special relationship." 369 N.W.2d at 415. In making this statement, we relied on Weymire v. Wolfe, 52 Iowa 533, 3 N.W. 541 (1879), where we held that a tavern-owner could not, as a matter of law, escape liability where he ordered an "unconscious" and ......
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Morris v. Legends Fieldhouse Bar & Grill, LLC
..."expelled from the saloon at a late hour of the night, drunk and unconscious, and died by reason of exposure and cold." 52 Iowa 533, 534–35, 3 N.W. 541, 542–43 (1879) (reversing the jury verdict based on instructional error). In Kelly v. Sinclair Oil Corp. , we made clear that the duty reco......
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Garofalo v. Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity
...a duty of care if the drunk is wrongfully expelled from the saloon, late at night, to die of cold and exposure. Weymire v. Wolfe, 52 Iowa 533, 534, 3 N.W. 541, 542 (1879); accord Hildenbrand, 369 N.W.2d at 2. Underage drinking. Iowa statutory law prohibits a person from giving, selling, or ......