Commercial Liability under Dram Shop Laws Text Size:

A Dram Shop is traditionally a business that serves alcoholic beverages by the "dram," which is a British unit of measure. Originally, these laws were intended to change the behavior or the individual drinker, but have changed to protect the public from irresponsibly selling alcohol to underage or seemingly intoxicated people.The act only applies to purchased alcohol.

This act holds bars, liquor stores, and other businesses responsible for serving alcohol to minor or seemingly intoxicated people who injure themselves or others. If the establishment knowingly sold alcohol to someone who shouldn't be drinking, they can be held liable for damages resulting from the sale.

State Dram Shop Laws Differ

Currently, most states have some sort of dram law, but they vary. Court decisions in states that don't have formal dram laws have established standards for future cases.

A dram shop violation may include any of the following acts of selling liquor:

• To an obviously intoxicated customer
• To a minor or underage person (based on identification)
• Without a license or identification
• After hours

Common Elements of Dram Shop Laws

Although dram shop laws among the states vary widely, there are some common elements of liability. Generally, grounds to file a lawsuit includes the following:

• A vendor or seller of alcohol(employees of a vendor are considered the vendor's agent)
• Served or sold alcohol to an intoxicated person (a person whose drinking appears to have diminished their ability to think and act normally) or minor
• The intoxication was the proximate cause of the injury to a person or property

Proximate Cause

Most of these laws require that an injured person, suing a commercial establishment, prove that without the act of serving or selling the alcohol, the accident would not have happened. In most cases, it is enough to show that giving alcohol added to the intoxication in some way and ultimately led to the injury of property or a person.

Compensation

Dram shop laws are designed to provide money to those injured as a result of wanton sales or furnishing of alcohol, but some laws contain limitations on the money that a person may receive. Awards for mental suffering and related intangible injuries are generally not recoverable unless the person can also show a physical injury.

Current trend

There is a strong trend of enacting laws around liquor liability. Groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) call for stricter actions to be taken against drunk drivers. A model law being proposed on a national lever is called the Alcohol Beverage Retail License Liability Act. The Act is designed to prevent alcohol-related injuries and establish groundwork for injured persons to collect money for their injuries.

Question for Your Attorney

• Can a liquor store be responsible for an accident caused by an intoxicated minor, if the minor stole the alcohol from the store?
• Can the waitress that served me alcohol be held accountable for irresponsibly selling me alcohol, even though I was obviously drunk?

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