Estate of Narleski v. Gomes

211 A.3d 737, 459 N.J. Super. 377
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedJune 6, 2019
DocketDOCKET NO. A-5144-17T4
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 211 A.3d 737 (Estate of Narleski v. Gomes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Narleski v. Gomes, 211 A.3d 737, 459 N.J. Super. 377 (N.J. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

SABATINO, P.J.A.D.

*382The tragedy of this wrongful death case began when the defendant liquor store sold about a half-gallon of vodka and three twenty-four ounce cans of beer to the nineteen-year-old decedent without checking his identification. Decedent and a group of his friends - all of whom were likewise young adults under the legal drinking age of twenty-one - then converged at the home of one of the young men. They drank the purchased alcohol in the young host's bedroom. Decedent then left the house as a passenger in the car of one of the inebriated youths. He died when the driver lost control of the car and it flipped over.

The decedent's estate sued the car driver and its owners for negligence and the liquor store under the Dram Shop Act. The liquor store pled a third-party complaint *740against the young man who had hosted the gathering and his parents, although the estate declined to name them as direct defendants. The estate eventually settled its claims with the liquor store and the driver.

The third-party defendants moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted the motion, finding that neither the underage adult host nor his parents had breached any established legal duty. The liquor store now appeals, urging us to recognize and enforce such duties.

We hold that, under the circumstances presented, the parents had no statutory or common law duty to prevent their adult underage son from allowing his adult underage friends to drink alcohol in their home without the parents' proven knowledge or consent. Nor did the son have an established duty of care under current law.

Going forward, however, we prospectively hold that an adult who is under the legal drinking age shall owe injured parties a *383duty under the common law to desist from facilitating drinking by underage adults in his or her place of residence. The recognition of such a legal duty is a logical extension of case law, and is consistent with the general public policies that underpin the related statutes.

I.

A.

We summarize the pertinent facts presented in the summary judgment record, mindful that there are a few variations in the witnesses' narratives. We consider those facts in a light most favorable to appellant as the non-moving party. R. 4:46-2; Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 142 N.J. 520, 540, 666 A.2d 146 (1995).

On November 9, 2014, decedent Brandon Narleski purchased a "handle" of vodka,1 three twenty-four ounce cans of beer, and a two-liter bottle of soda from a liquor store owned and operated by defendant Amboy Food Liquor and News, Inc. ("Amboy"). Three young men - Xavier Pinto, Zachary Johnson, and Mark2 Zwierzynski - accompanied Narleski to the liquor store. Notably, all four individuals were adults over the age of eighteen but were under the legal drinking age of twenty-one. When Narleski went to the counter to make his purchase, Amboy's retail clerk did not ask him for a driver's license or other identification to confirm he was of legal drinking age.

Once Narleski purchased the alcohol, the young men drove to Mark's house, where he lived with his mother, Mercedes Apraez.3

*384While at the residence, the four friends "hung out" in Mark's bedroom, drank the purchased alcohol, and played games. Mark's mother was not home when they arrived. Apparently, she had been out of the house since the night before.

At some point during the gathering, Narleski sent a text message to Nicholas Gomes, who also was an adult under the age of twenty-one, to come to Mark's house to join the group in drinking. According to Gomes, he arrived at Mark's house around 9:00 p.m. Gomes claimed he "downed" two cups filled with approximately two inches of vodka mixed with orange juice while he was there.

*741It is undisputed that Mark's mother eventually came home that evening. However, there is some dispute about exactly what time she arrived. According to Gomes's deposition testimony, after he was at Mark's residence for about fifty minutes, Mark received a call that his mother was coming home. Gomes and Narleski then left the residence to go to another friend's house.

Before coming home, Apraez picked up Mark's daughter from the house of the child's mother. Apraez testified at her deposition that, except for her son Mark, she never saw any of the other young men in her house that night, or knew that they were drinking alcohol there. She insisted that she did not leave alcohol in her home, nor did she allow Mark to drink there.

According to Apraez, upon arriving at the house, she sent Mark a text message and asked him to help bring his daughter inside. Apraez testified that Mark met her at the front door and assisted her with the child.

Mark provided slightly different accounts of what occurred. He testified at his deposition that he could not recall whether his daughter was present in the house while he and his friends were drinking. However, in an earlier statement to the police, Mark stated that, on that night, he "departed his bedroom to tend to his child in another room of the residence for a time period of approximately twenty ... minutes, and upon his return, at approximately *38510 p.m. ... [he] briefly spoke to Brandon [Narleski] and Nicholas [Gomes] who then departed the residence in Gomes's vehicle."

Mark did admit at his deposition that he had accompanied Narleski to purchase the alcohol at the liquor store, and that he and his friends drank the alcohol in his bedroom. He denied that Gomes and Narleski appeared to him to be intoxicated.

After Gomes and Narleski left the house, they got into Gomes's car, intending to go to a friend's house about fifteen minutes away. Gomes got into the driver's seat and fastened his seatbelt. Narleski got into the passenger's seat, but did not fasten his own seatbelt.

While Gomes was driving on a highway, he lost control of the car and crashed into the center median. As a result of the crash, Narleski was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead on the scene.

An analysis of Gomes's blood revealed his blood alcohol content ("BAC") was .161 at the time of the accident, well above the .08 legal limit for BAC specified by N.J.S.A. 39:4-50(a).

B.

In the wake of this tragedy, the Estate of Brandon Narleski and his parents filed a wrongful death complaint in the Law Division. As amended, the complaint alleged that Gomes was liable for his intoxicated operation of the vehicle that resulted in the crash and Narleski's death, and that, in addition, Amboy was liable under the Dram Shop Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:22A-1 to -7.4

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211 A.3d 737, 459 N.J. Super. 377, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-narleski-v-gomes-njsuperctappdiv-2019.