Clark v. Mincks

364 N.W.2d 226, 1985 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 975
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMarch 20, 1985
Docket83-343, 83-1164
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 364 N.W.2d 226 (Clark v. Mincks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Mincks, 364 N.W.2d 226, 1985 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 975 (iowa 1985).

Opinions

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

Plaintiffs Clark assert three claims growing out of an alleged wrongful death: one against the owner and the estate of the deceased driver of the van which was involved, another against the hosts of a cookout which the deceased driver had attended, and the third against a passenger in the van. These two consolidated appeals involve the latter two claims.

The appeals present two basic tort liability questions, and come to us on the pleadings and results of discovery. One appeal is founded on the hosts’ alleged giving alcoholic beverages to an intoxicated guest (the driver of the van). The other appeal is founded on an alleged duty of care by a passenger in a motor vehicle for the safety of another passenger.

Plaintiffs allege that defendants William E. and Larry Rex Mincks (the Mincks) hosted a rural party during the late afternoon and evening of October 1 and into October 2, 1982, and gave beer or other intoxicants to (now) decedent Nancy Mincks when she was intoxicated. Plaintiffs had their children at the party, one of whom was Michelle Lynn Clark. Nancy Mincks and others, including Michelle, entered a van owned by Nancy’s husband, and Nancy operated it. The van flipped onto its side and continued rolling over, and Nancy and Michelle were killed. In one count plaintiffs ask damages of the Mincks for Michelle’s death.

The Mincks moved to dismiss plaintiffs’ petition for failure to state a claim, on the ground that a cause of action against social hosts does not arise from injuries flowing [228]*228from the hosts’ giving intoxicants to a guest. The district court sustained the motion, and we granted plaintiffs’ application to appeal.

In another count plaintiffs asserted a claim against defendant Gale Bogle for Michelle’s death. Bogle moved for summary judgment as to this count. We thus look to the documentation in the case which was before the district court. Viewing that documentation in plaintiffs’ favor, Tasco, Inc. v. Winkel, 281 N.W.2d 280, 282 (Iowa 1979), findings could be made that Nancy Mincks began drinking about noon on October 1st before she came to the cookout, and then drank again in the evening at the cookout until late that night; that she drank over ten twelve-ounce cups of beer at the cookout, had difficulty standing, and spilled beer on one of the hosts; that Bogle knew she was too drunk to drive and at one point in the evening held her up to prevent her from stumbling; and that at the time of the mishap her blood-alcohol level was .222 milligrams percent.

The following additional findings could be made. Nancy and Mrs. Bogle had brought quarters for their children to use in playing video games. About midnight Nancy and Bogle decided that at least some of the people remaining at the party should take the children into town to a tavern which had video games. Mrs. Bogle loaded the Bogle car with girls, and departed for town. She did not have room, however, for Michelle or for the boys. Nancy brought her husband’s van around to the picnic site, and urged others to climb in and go to town. Bogle got into the van — the only adult beside Nancy — as well as plaintiffs’ small son and another boy. Michelle was playing on the van steps.

Plaintiff Shirley J. Clark, aware of Nancy’s condition, asked Nancy’s husband, Robert G. Mincks, not to let her drive, and requested plaintiff Michael J. Clark to remove their son from the van. Robert made the request of Nancy, and Michael assured Shirley that Nancy would not drive. Plaintiffs then removed their son from the van; the other boy remained in the vehicle. A finding could reasonably be made that Bo-gle knew plaintiffs did not want their children to ride with Nancy.

At some point Michelle also entered the van, and the van departed. Plaintiff Michael J. Clark thought Michelle was in the first carload, but plaintiff Shirley J. Clark knew the girl was in the van.

Plaintiffs soon left in a third vehicle for the tavern. On the way they came upon the wrecked van, and found that Nancy and Michelle had been killed.

The district court overruled Bogle’s motion for summary judgment in material part.

1. Hosts’giving intoxicants. We first take up plaintiffs’ claim that a common-law cause of action for negligence exists against the Mincks for Michelle’s death, arising from the Mincks’ giving Nancy intoxicants when she was intoxicated. Plaintiffs claim the negligence arises here from violation of a statute. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 286 (1965) (negligence based on statutory violation). They rely on section 123.49(1) of the Iowa Code of 1983:

No person shall sell, dispense, or give to any intoxicated person, or one simulating intoxication, any alcoholic liquor or beer.

As the question arises from a ruling on a motion to dismiss, we take plaintiffs’ allegations in their petition as true and construe the allegations in the light most favorable to the pleaders. Salsbury Laboratories v. Iowa DEQ, 276 N.W.2d 830, 833 (Iowa 1979).

Most of the cases which have come before this court involving the furnishing of intoxicants to another person arose in the dramshop context. This one however involves social hosts. Two problems arise: whether a cause of action can exist at all outside the dramshop context and, if so, whether we should reject such a cause of action in the social setting for policy reasons.

A. Our present statute involving liability for providing liquor to another, whereby a third person is injured, does not create [229]*229liability in the present context; it is limited to liability of a licensee or permittee of a liquor or beer establishment. Iowa Code § 123.92 (1983). Can a common-law cause of action arise in the non-licensee or non-permittee setting? Two of our recent decisions, one of which was decided after the district court’s ruling here, so indicate.

Formerly this court and courts in general held that a person who furnished intoxicants to another, who in turn injured a third person, was not liable to the third person, because the consumption of the liquor and not the furnishing of the liquor was the proximate cause of the injury. Cowman v. Hansen, 250 Iowa 358, 92 N.W.2d 682 (1958). That decision, however, came into question in Lewis v. State, 256 N.W.2d 181 (Iowa 1977). In Lewis a state liquor store employee sold liquor to a minor in violation of a statute prohibiting such sales. Iowa Code § 123.43 (1971). Lewis did not rely on the dramshop statute but on common-law negligence arising from violation of section 123.43, and made a frontal attack on Cowman. We said:

We therefore hold the sale or furnishing of intoxicating liquor in violation of section 123.43 may well be the proximate cause of injuries sustained as a result of an intoxicated individual’s tortious conduct and liability may thus be imposed upon the violators in favor of the injured, innocent third party.

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Bluebook (online)
364 N.W.2d 226, 1985 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 975, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-mincks-iowa-1985.