Goodknight v. Piraino

554 N.E.2d 1, 197 Ill. App. 3d 319, 143 Ill. Dec. 208, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 569
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 19, 1990
Docket4-89-0412
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 554 N.E.2d 1 (Goodknight v. Piraino) 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
Goodknight v. Piraino, 554 N.E.2d 1, 197 Ill. App. 3d 319, 143 Ill. Dec. 208, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 569 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE KNECHT

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, Terri Goodknight, filed a second-amended complaint, counts V through XI alleging common law negligence, wilful and wanton misconduct, and a violation of the Dramshop Act (Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 43, par. 135) against the defendants, Village of Royal, and Royal Centennial, Inc., a nonprofit corporation, and special governmental negligence against the Village of Royal. Counts I through IV involved other defendants not party to this appeal. The trial court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss counts V through XI of plaintiff’s second-amended complaint with prejudice and entered a Rule 304(a) finding (107 Ill. 2d R. 304(a)). Plaintiff appeals, and we affirm.

The complaint alleged on the night of February 14, 1987, the plaintiff, 18 years of age, attended a Valentine’s Day party promoted by the Village of Royal (Royal), and held in the Royal community building. At this party, liquor was sold. The complaint alleges the plaintiff was “coerced” into drinking alcohol by her male companion, Brent Hockett, and others who attended this party. The complaint further alleges, due to lack of supervision by Royal, the plaintiff became intoxicated, was taken to Hockett’s home in her car by Hockett, left Hockett’s home, and began to drive to her home in her own car. During this trip, plaintiff crashed her car, sustaining multiple injuries, including an injury to her spine which rendered her disabled.

The issues on appeal involve whether a cause of action exists against the defendants for common law negligence, special governmental negligence, or in dramshop, so as to survive a motion to dismiss under section 2 — 615 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Code) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 110, par. 2 — 615). “Motions to dismiss under section 2 — 615 of the [Code] *** admit all well-pleaded facts and attack only the legal sufficiency of a complaint. *** ‘[N]o cause of action should be dismissed on the pleadings unless it clearly appears that no set of facts can be proved to sustain it.’ ” First National Bank v. Brumleve & Dabbs (1989), 183 Ill. App. 3d 987, 992, 539 N.E.2d 877, 880, quoting Golden Rule Life Insurance Co. v. Mathias (1980), 86 Ill. App. 3d 323, 332, 408 N.E.2d 310, 317.

The Illinois Supreme Court has determined the Act provides the exclusive remedy against tavern operators and owners for injuries to the person, property, or means of support by an intoxicated person, or the consequences of the intoxication. Cunningham v. Brown (1961), 22 Ill. 2d 23, 30-31, 174 N.E.2d 153, 157; Hopkins v. Powers (1986), 113 Ill. 2d 206, 497 N.E.2d 757.

Despite the holding of Cunningham, there exists a common law negligence cause of action against tavern owners beyond the Act. Plaintiff relies principally on three cases, Lessner v. Hurtt (1977), 55 Ill. App. 3d 195, 371 N.E.2d 125, Hayes v. O’Donnell (1979), 76 Ill. App. 3d 695, 395 N.E.2d 184, and Harris v. Gower, Inc. (1987), 153 Ill. App. 3d 1035, 506 N.E.2d 624. In Lessner, while acknowledging the holding in Cunningham, the court held regardless of whether a person purchases or consumes liquor in a dramshop, the owner or operator of the dramshop may be negligent and consequently held liable for failure to protect its patrons from physical harm by persons on the premises. (Lessner, 55 Ill. App. 3d at 197, 371 N.E.2d at 126.) Therefore, if an owner knows a person is becoming abusive and is likely to attack someone, Lessner recognized a duty to take steps to remove the problem, to “act as a reasonable man in avoiding harm to invitees from negligence or even intentional attacks of third persons.” (Lessner, 55 Ill. App. 3d at 197, 371 N.E.2d at 126.) This result conforms to general principles of duty on the part of a possessor of land who holds it open to the public. Hayes, 76 Ill. App. 3d at 697, 395 N.E.2d at 185.

Contrary to plaintiffs argument, Lessner does not change the rule of Cunningham, but distinguishes between the injuries resulting from a negligent sale or supplying of liquor and those resulting from the failure of a general duty to keep business premises safe. In Lessner, as in Hayes, the plaintiff was injured as a result of an attack on a patron on the premises by an intoxicated person. (Lessner, 55 Ill. App. 3d at 197, 371 N.E.2d at 126; Hayes, 76 Ill. App. 3d at 696, 395 N.E.2d at 185.) In Harris, the plaintiff passed out at the bar, and was injured after the defendant owners carried him out of the tavern and put him in the car where he froze to death. Harris, 153 Ill. App. 3d at 1036-37, 506 N.E.2d at 625.

The Hayes court held, since the customers were “boisterous and dangerous,” the owner of the establishment should have been placed on notice of the possible attack on the plaintiff and, therefore, should have done something to prevent this attack. (Hayes, 76 Ill. App. 3d at 697, 395 N.E.2d at 185.) This plaintiff alleges the crowd at the dance was an “unruly throng,” and argues, as in Hayes, this should have put the defendants on notice plaintiff was going to be intimidated into a state of intoxication, and later, as a result of this intoxication, become involved in an automobile accident. This takes the Hayes and Lessner analysis too far. Plaintiff was injured as a result of a sale of liquor leading to intoxication, not as a result of a violation of a common law duty to maintain a safe premises. Since plaintiff argues the negligent sale of liquor made the premises unsafe, she is essentially arguing the Act should be changed, a matter within the province of the legislature or, by its interpretation of the Act, the supreme court.

In Harris, the same analysis applies since, although the injury took place off the premises, it was the actual tavern owners who took the patron out of the building and placed him in his freezing car. No case law applies Lessner to a fact pattern in which a patron leaves a dramshop on his own and is injured off the premises, or by an intoxicated person off the premises. Rather, in a case where a person left a tavern on his own and later suffered injuries after becoming unconscious in a bank of snow, the court held the tavern owner was not negligent under the duty imposed under common law for such establishments. (Gora v. 7-11 Food Stores (1982), 109 Ill. App. 3d 109, 111-12, 440 N.E.2d 279, 281-82.) In view of the crucial distinction made by the Lessner court, we find plaintiff’s argument for the applicability of common law negligence cause of action unpersuasive.

The plaintiff argues an exception to the Act should be carved out to allow a common law negligence action when alcohol is sold to a minor. In Puckett v. Mr. Lucky’s Ltd. (1988), 175 Ill. App. 3d 355, 529 N.E.2d 1169, the dissent argued forcefully for “a limited exception to the common law rule of nonliability of dramshops when alcohol is sold to a minor who consequently causes injury to a third person.” (Puckett, 175 Ill. App.

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Bluebook (online)
554 N.E.2d 1, 197 Ill. App. 3d 319, 143 Ill. Dec. 208, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 569, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodknight-v-piraino-illappct-1990.