Estate of Templeton v. Daffern

98 Wash. App. 677
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJanuary 7, 2000
DocketNo. 23111-5-II
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 98 Wash. App. 677 (Estate of Templeton v. Daffern) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Templeton v. Daffern, 98 Wash. App. 677 (Wash. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

Morgan, J.

We are asked to decide whether a social host who does not furnish alcohol to a minor, but who permits the minor to consume on the host’s premises alcohol obtained elsewhere, owes to the minor a common law duty of reasonable care. Answering no, we affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendants.

In September 1994, Stan and Jean Daffern owned property improved with a house and nearby cabin. They lived in the house. Their son Dan and his roommate, Mike Vaardahl, lived in the cabin.1 The house and cabin are served by the same driveway.

Early in the evening of September 9, 1994, Dan and Mike left the cabin to attend separate engagements. It is uncontroverted that there was no alcohol in the cabin at that time.

Starting about 11 p.m. and extending into the wee hours, the cabin was the site of a teenage drinking party. “[A]t any given time,” according to the plaintiffs, “there were approximately 10 to 15 cars in the driveway and 20 to 25 people attending the party, most of whom were minors. The music was extremely loud, people were coming and going and cars were driving in and out of the driveway all night.”2

[680]*680Stan and Jean were in the main house during the party. According to them, they did not know the party was taking place. According to the plaintiffs, they must have known the party was taking place. In any event, neither of them took any action to stop or control the party.

Dan and Mike returned to the cabin while the party was in progress.3 Although neither brought any alcohol, each joined in the party and consumed alcohol that others had brought.4

Travis Templeton, age 16, was one of those who attended the party. Despite his minority, he consumed an unknown amount of alcohol.5 He left the party driving a borrowed car, and shortly thereafter crashed into a tree. Tragically, he was killed.

The plaintiffs filed a negligence complaint against Stan, Jean and Dan Daffern, and also against Vaardahl. The defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing that a social host has no duty under the circumstances present here. Relying on RCW 66.44.270(1), the plaintiffs responded that a social host has a statutory duty not to permit a minor “to consume liquor on his or her premises or on any premises under his or her control.” The trial court granted the defendants’ motion, and the plaintiffs filed this appeal.

The common law of negligence controls civil liability for [681]*681alcohol-related activity.6 Although Washington once had a Dramshop Act,7 it repealed that act in 1955.8

The common law of negligence distinguishes between the commercial vendor and the social host. The commercial vendor owes a duty of reasonable care to the minor but not the adult vendee;9 to the minor vendee’s minor transferee;10 and to the third person foreseeably injured by a minor vendee,11 a minor vendee’s minor transferee,12 or an over-served adult vendee.13 The social host owes a duty of reasonable care to a minor to whom the host furnishes alcohol,14 but not to third persons injured by the minor15 or the minor’s transferee.16

To date, the common law of negligence has not provided that a social host can be negligent merely by permitting a minor to consume, on the host’s premises, alcohol that the host did not furnish. The plaintiffs, however, urge us to take that step.

[682]*682At the root of any common law negligence action is the common law duty to exercise reasonable care17 (or, in alternative terms, the common law duty to exercise at least as much care as a reasonable person would exercise under the same or similar circumstances).18 This duty is breached when a defendant fails to exercise ordinary care19 (or, in alternative terms, when a defendant fails to exercise as much care as a reasonable person would exercise under the same or similar circumstances).20 Any such failure is “negligence.”21

A common law negligence action can involve a statutory duty as well a common law one, but only if the statute specifying such duty meets the four-part test in Restatement (Second) of Torts § 286 (1965).22 That test requires that the statute’s purposes be (1) to protect a class of persons that includes the person whose interest is invaded; (2) to protect the particular interest invaded; (3) to protect that interest against the kind of harm that resulted; and (4) to protect that interest against the particular hazard from which the harm resulted.23

Before 1986, a plaintiff could predicate liability on either [683]*683the breach of a common law duty of reasonable care, or the breach of an applicable statutory duty.24 In other words, a plaintiff could recover by showing a failure to exercise ordinary care, proximate cause and damages;25 or, alternatively, by showing the violation of an applicable statute, proximate cause and damages.26 When a plaintiff sought to predicate liability on the breach of a duty imposed by statute, he or she was relying on “the doctrine of negligence per se.”27

In 1986, the legislature enacted RCW 5.40.050. That statute provides:

A breach of a duty imposed by statute, ordinance, or administrative rule shall not be considered negligence per se, but may be considered by the trier of fact as evidence of negligence; however, any breach of duty as provided by statute, ordinance, or administrative rule relating to electrical fire safety, the use of smoke alarms, or driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug, shall be considered negligence per se.

RCW 5.40.050 did not change the Restatement’s four-part test for determining whether a statutory duty applies [684]*684in a negligence case28 — RCW 5.40.050 assumes the existence of a statutory duty, as well as a breach of that duty— but it did change the legal effect of breaching a statutory duty that has been determined to apply. By stating that the breach of a statutory duty is not negligence, but only evidence of negligence,29

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
98 Wash. App. 677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-templeton-v-daffern-washctapp-2000.