Cravens v. Inman

586 N.E.2d 367, 223 Ill. App. 3d 1059, 166 Ill. Dec. 409
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 19, 1991
Docket1-90-1124
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 586 N.E.2d 367 (Cravens v. Inman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cravens v. Inman, 586 N.E.2d 367, 223 Ill. App. 3d 1059, 166 Ill. Dec. 409 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

JUSTICE McMORROW

delivered the opinion of the court:

Joleen Cravens, the minor daughter of Janice Cravens (plaintiff), died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident which occurred while Joleen was a passenger in a motor vehicle driven by her friend, Rita Lenzi (Lenzi), also a minor. Plaintiff filed suit against Lenzi, David and Rita Inman (defendants), and other persons not parties to this appeal. In counts II and III of her complaint, plaintiff alleged that the defendants negligently served Lenzi alcohol at a social gathering at the defendants’ home, allowed Lenzi to become intoxicated and leave the social gathering in an automobile, and that Lenzi thereafter drove the car in a reckless manner resulting in a crash that caused the death of the plaintiff’s daughter. The trial court dismissed counts II and III against defendants, and plaintiff appeals. Because we conclude that counts II and III of plaintiff’s complaint were suffident to state daims for which relief may be granted based upon common law principles of negligence, we reverse and remand.

The allegations of plaintiff’s second amended complaint, which we accept as true for the purpose of review (Ziemba v. Mierzwa (1991), 142 Ill. 2d 42, 566 N.E.2d 1365), alleged the following. On or about October 31, 1987, defendants held a housewarming party at their New Lenox, Illinois, home. The defendants invited adult guests and various minor friends and acquaintances of their son. These minors included Lenzi and plaintiff’s daughter, Joleen. The complaint alleges that Joleen and Lenzi were under 16 years of age on the date of the party.

Plaintiff alleged that the defendants knowingly served beer and alcohol to all guests, without supervision and without determining or observing whether minors were consuming these beverages. Plaintiff alleged that the defendants knew, or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known, that many, if not all, of their guests arrived at the housewarming party by automobile, that the guests intended to leave by the same method, and that consumption of alcoholic beverages by their guests, including the minors, could and would affect their mental faculties as well as their ability to safely and properly operate a motor vehicle.

Plaintiff alleged that although defendants knew that many of their guests were minors and that alcohol was being served to all guests, the defendants served liquor, and entrusted and permitted their minor son to serve liquor, to the minor son’s friends, including Lenzi, throughout the course of the party. Plaintiff alleged that defendants continued to do so after the defendants knew or should have known that such alcohol consumption by the minor guests was causing the minors to become intoxicated and to show “the effects of said intoxication.”

According to plaintiff’s complaint, defendants permitted Lenzi to continue her alcohol consumption at the housewarming party even after Lenzi had reached a “state of intoxication.” Plaintiff alleged that as a result of this intoxication, Lenzi’s judgment, senses and faculties became totally impaired, thereby preventing her from appreciating and having an awareness of her condition. Plaintiff alleged that defendants made no effort to determine the manner in which Lenzi was planning on leaving their premises or her physical condition at the time she in fact left the premises.

Plaintiff alleged that Lenzi left the defendants’ home with other guests, including plaintiff’s minor daughter, in an automobile owned by another minor who attended the party, Gerard Neauveau (Neauveau). Thereafter, Lenzi took control of the motor vehicle in which the daughter was a passenger. Plaintiff alleged that at this time, Lenzi drove in an uncontrolled and reckless manner, including the avoidance of police pursuit, until Lenzi lost control of the vehicle and it crashed, thereby causing plaintiffs daughter to sustain injuries resulting in her death.

Plaintiff sought damages from defendants based upon common law negligence (count II), breach of statutory duties giving rise to common law negligence (count III), and violation of the Illinois Dram-shop Act (111. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 43, par. 135) (count IV). Plaintiff also alleged negligence claims against Lenzi (count I) and against Neauveau (count V). We note that in count V, directed against Neauveau, plaintiff alleged that when the group initially left the housewarming party, Neauveau was driving the automobile. Plaintiff further alleged that Neauveau stopped at a gas station, got out of the car, and left the motor running and the keys in the ignition. At this point, Lenzi got behind the wheel and began driving the car. Plaintiff alleged that neither Lenzi nor her daughter was of lawful age to drive a motor vehicle, and that neither possessed a license to operate an automobile.

Upon defendants’ motion under section 2 — 615(a) of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 110, par. 2 — 615(a)), the trial court dismissed counts II, III, and IV for failure to state claims for which relief could be granted (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 110, par. 2 — 615), and found no just reason to delay enforcement of or appeal from this ruling (134 Ill. 2d R. 304(a)). Plaintiff appeals from the dismissal of counts II and III of her second amended complaint.

The fundamental question presented for our review is whether the facts alleged give rise, under Illinois common law, to claims for defendant’s negligence liability with respect to the injuries sustained by plaintiff and her deceased daughter. Relying on stare decisis, the defendants claim that we should adopt the view of prior Illinois Appellate Court decisions that have declined to recognize social host liability for the provision of alcohol to a minor resulting in injury, on the ground that such liability is preempted by the Illinois Dramshop Act, and requires consideration of factors best resolved by the Illinois legislature or the Illinois Supreme Court. Plaintiff responds that Illinois jurisprudence does not prevent recognition of plaintiff’s common law negligence claims, and that this court should adopt the view of other jurisdictions that have recognized social host liability under facts similar to those presented herein.

I. CIVIL LIABILITY FOR ALCOHOL-RELATED INJURIES

In Illinois, a commercial vendor’s civil liability for alcohol-related injuries is governed by the Dramshop Act (Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 43, par. 135). Subsection (a) of the Act currently states in pertinent part:

“Every person who is injured within this State, in person or property, by any intoxicated person has a right of action in his or her own name, severally or jointly, against any person, licensed under the laws of this State or of any other state to sell alcoholic liquor, who, by selling or giving alcoholic liquor, within or without the territorial limits of this State, causes the intoxication of such person.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 43, par. 135(a).)

Subsection (a) further provides that an “action shall lie for injuries to means of support caused by an intoxicated person or in consequence of the intoxication of any person resulting as hereinabove set out.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 43, par.

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Bluebook (online)
586 N.E.2d 367, 223 Ill. App. 3d 1059, 166 Ill. Dec. 409, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cravens-v-inman-illappct-1991.