Farmers Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Gast

117 N.W.2d 347, 17 Wis. 2d 344
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 2, 1962
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 117 N.W.2d 347 (Farmers Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Gast) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farmers Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Gast, 117 N.W.2d 347, 17 Wis. 2d 344 (Wis. 1962).

Opinion

Currie, J.

Defendant’s brief states the issue on this appeal to be: Is a tavernkeeper who, in violation of law, sells fermented malt beverages to a seventeen-year-old minor liable to third persons injured by reason of such minor’s resulting intoxication? Nevertheless, we deem the allegations of the complaint sufficient to raise the further issue of whether defendant is liable on principles of common-law negligence independent of his violation of a criminal statute. Therefore, after resolving the first issue we shall consider the second.

Liability Grounded Upon Violation of a Criminal Statute.

The criminal statute which defendant violated in selling fermented malt beverages to seventeen-year-old Donald Kahler is sec. 66.054 (9) (b), Stats. 1957. This statute provides:

“No fermented malt beverages shall be sold, dispensed, given away, or furnished to any person under the age of eighteen years unless accompanied by parent or guardian.”

Plaintiff’s theory of its cause of action is that defendant’s violation of this statute constituted negligence per se and rendered him liable to anyone sustaining damage as a result-of this violation.

[348]*348The general rule adopted by this court is that violation of a criminal statute constitutes negligence per se. McAleavy v. Lowe (1951), 259 Wis. 463, 475, 476, 49 N. W. (2d) 487. In that case, however, we noted that there are exceptions to this rule. One such exception might arise if a driver swerved to the wrong side of a highway to avoid a collision with an object in his lane of travel. In Reque v. Milwaukee & S. T. Corp. (1959), 7 Wis. (2d) 111, 114b, 95 N. W. (2d) 752, 97 N. W. (2d) 182, we recognized ’still another exception to the rule of negligence per se where a statute had been violated. In that case, the statute violated had been enacted to protect against hazards other than that which gave rise to the harm. We cited therein the Restatement, Torts (2d), Tentative Draft No. 4, p. 48, sec. 288, which sets forth, among other exceptions., the closely analogous case in which a statute has been enacted to protect an interest other than the one invaded by its violation.

We are satisfied that sec. 66.054 (9) (b), Stats., was enacted to protect the safety of persons who might be injured as a result of the intoxication of minors as well as the health and morals of minors under eighteen years of age.1 Since we have concluded that one of the objectives of this statute is public safety, the general rule, rather than any of its exceptions, would be applicable and the violator of this statute would ordinarily be negligent per se. In such a situation, where the legislature enacts a criminal statute and is silent about the civil liability, if any, which attaches [349]*349to its violation, the courts are free to determine under common-law principles whether the violator is civilly liable for damages to one injured by the violation. It would be extremely difficult, after imposing liability, under the negligence per se doctrine (in McAleavy v. Lowe, supra), upon the violator of a statute prohibiting the sale of adulterated pig food, to relieve from liability one who sold intoxicating beverages to a minor in violation of a statute making it a criminal offense to do so.

Nevertheless, where the legislature, in addition to enacting a criminal statute, legislates further and makes the violator of the statute civilly liable in certain situations, the question arises, Has the legislature pre-empted the field of civil liability? This brings us to defendant’s contention that the legislature has pre-empted the field of civil liability in the case of a tavernkeeper, such as defendant, who has violated sec. 66.054 (9) (b), Stats. Defendant points out (1) that over the years the legislature had provided for civil liability of vendors of intoxicating liquors, and (2) that the exclusive civil remedy for breach of any of the criminal laws regulating sales of liquor is sec. 176.35 2 adopted in 1934. [350]*350We interpret the action of the legislature in enacting sec. 176.35, which requires notice to be given not to sell or give an intoxicating liquor to a minor in violation of statute as a condition to imposing civil liability, as a clear expression of legislative intent that, absent giving of notice, no civil liability is to result from the violation. This is true even though the remedy provided is not coextensive with the wrong declared by criminal statutes such as sec. 66.054 (9) (b). Courts in other jurisdictions have found legislative pre-emption of the field of civil liability for sales of intoxicating beverages in violation of criminal statutes even though the remedy provided is not coextensive with the wrong declared. Thus plaintiffs’ causes of action grounded on such violations were held, in the following cases, to be without the provisions of the civil-liability statutes involved: Noonan v. Galick (1955), 19 Conn. Supp. 308, 112 Atl. (2d) 892; Randall v. Village of Excelsior (1960), 258 Minn. 81, 103 N. W. (2d) 131; Strand v. Village of Watson (1955), 245 Minn. 414, 72 N. W. (2d) 609; Cavin v. Smith (1949), 228 Minn. 322, 37 N. W. (2d) 368; Howlett v. Doglio (1949), 402 Ill. 311, 83 N. E. (2d) 708; and Hyba v. C. A. Horneman, Inc. (1939), 302 Ill. App. 143, 23 N. E. (2d) 564. The federal court, however, in Waynick v. Chicago’s Last Department Store (7th Cir. 1959), 269 Fed. (2d) 322, 77 A. L. R. (2d) 1260, certiorari denied, 362 U. S. 903, 80 Sup. Ct. 611, 4 L. Ed. (2d) 554, found no pre-emption under the Illinois dramshop statute because the accident, in which plaintiffs were injured, occurred in Michigan and not Illinois where the unlawful sales of intoxicating liquor took place. See also Schelin v. Goldberg (1958), 188 Pa. Super. 341, 146 Atl. (2d) 648, leave to appeal denied by the Pennsylvania supreme court February 27, 1959, where the accident occurred after repeal of Pennsylvania’s dramshop statute.

[351]*351It is conceded that plaintiff cannot ground its cause of action upon the civil-damage act, sec. 176.35, Stats., because (1) the beer sold Donald was not an “intoxicating liquor” as defined in sec. 176.01 (2),3 and (2) defendant was not given notice not to sell or give intoxicating liquors to Donald. We have deemed it advisable to set forth, as an appendix to this opinion, a history of the legislation imposing civil liability from territorial days down to the present time. Included therein are some of this court’s interpretations of the various statutes. This legislative history further supports the view that the legislature has pre-empted the field of civil liability resulting from illegal sales of intoxicating beverages including beer.

The following question may arise: Why does the court find legislative pre-emption in the instant case when it did not so find in Holytz v. Milwaukee, ante, p. 26, 115 N. W. (2d) 618. In that case, wherein the doctrine of immunity of municipal corporations for tort liability was abolished, the legislature had subjected municipal corporations to liability for negligence in the construction, repair, and maintenance of public buildings, and in the operation of municipally owned or operated motor vehicles. Secs. 101.06 and 345.05, Stats. Limited liability also, had been imposed upon municipalities for damages due to defective streets or sidewalks. Sec. 81.15. Nevertheless, this court in

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117 N.W.2d 347, 17 Wis. 2d 344, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farmers-mutual-automobile-insurance-v-gast-wis-1962.