LaGuire v. Kain

487 N.W.2d 389, 440 Mich. 367
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 29, 1992
DocketDocket Nos. 89871, 90657, (Calendar Nos. 6-7)
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 487 N.W.2d 389 (LaGuire v. Kain) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LaGuire v. Kain, 487 N.W.2d 389, 440 Mich. 367 (Mich. 1992).

Opinions

Brickley, J.

The question presented in these companion cases is whether Michigan’s Liquor Control Act, as amended in 1986,1 entitles a minor’s estate or a minor’s family to recover from a liquor licensee for injuries allegedly resulting from the licensee’s illegal provision of alcohol to a minor. We hold that the 1986 amendments of the dramshop act bar both a minor’s estate and the family of that minor from recovery under the act. Therefore, we reverse the decisions of the Court of Appeals in Waranica v Cheers Good Time Saloons, Inc, 186 Mich App 398; 464 NW2d 902 (1990), and LaGuire v Kain, 185 Mich App 239; 460 NW2d 598 (1990).

I

Each of these cases arises out of an automobile collision that occurred after the defendant liquor licensee allegedly illegally served alcohol to the driver of a vehicle, a minor, who became intoxicated, caused a collision resulting in the minor’s death, and injured others.

A

In LaGuire v Kain, the plaintiff’s decedent, Michael John Mihailuk, then seventeen, purport[371]*371edly used an altered driver’s license to purchase alcoholic beverages from the defendant liquor licensee, William James Kain, doing business as Copa Nite Club. After leaving the bar, the decedent drove his car across the center line and collided head-on with another vehicle, injuring the driver, Lisa Lord, and killing himself. Lisa Lord sued Betty Jane LaGuire, personal representative of the estate of the decedent, Michael John Mihailuk, and his parents, Michael Grant Mihailuk and Janet Sue Mihailuk. The defendants in the original suit, the minor’s estate and parents, filed cross-claims against the liquor licensee. After Lisa Lord, the original plaintiff, settled with the minor’s estate and family and gave up her claim against the licensee, the trial court realigned the parties and ordered a revised caption, which represented the original defendants, the minor’s estate and his family, as plaintiffs, and the licensee as the defendant.2

The defendant licensee moved for summary disposition on the basis that the statute failed to create a cause of action in favor of plaintiffs. Relying on Cornack v Sweeney, 127 Mich App 375; 339 NW2d 26 (1983), the defendant argued that no cause of action existed in favor of the minor or his estate before the 1986 amendments and that the 1986 amendments of the statute created no cause of action in their favor. In response, the plaintiffs focused on subsection 10 of the dramshop act, MCL 436.22(10); MSA 18.993(10). In analyzing that provision, the plaintiffs relied on Stowers v Wolodzko, 386 Mich 119; 191 NW2d 355 (1971), for the rule of statutory construction providing that the expres[372]*372sion of one thing in a statute excludes the inclusion of other similar things. Plaintiffs claimed that because neither the minor nor the minor’s family were specifically mentioned in subsection 10, which barred actions by visibly intoxicated persons, the statute was not intended to bar their claims. The trial court agreed with the plaintiffs.

The defendant filed a motion for reconsideration, noting that Rosas v Damore, 171 Mich App 563; 430 NW2d 783 (1988), had been released after argument of the defendant’s motion for summary disposition. The defendant contended that Rosas had interpreted the amended statute to preclude a noninnocent party, including a minor, from recovering damages under the statute. In response, the plaintiffs sought to undermine the authority of Rosas by suggesting that it erroneously relied on Longstreth v Gensel, 423 Mich 675; 377 NW2d 804 (1985), a case involving common-law liability of social hosts and not applicable to dramshop liability under the statute. Concluding that it was bound by Rosas, the trial court granted the motion for reconsideration and granted summary disposition for the defendant with respect to the claims of the minor’s estate and the claims of the minor’s parents.

The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that both the minor’s estate and the minor’s family were entitled to sue under the amended statute.3 Noting that before the 1986 amendments the actions would have been barred, the Court of Appeals examined the language and structure of the [373]*373amended statute in light of several rules of construction, concluding that both a minor and the minor’s family could sue. The Court then certified that its opinion conflicted with Rosas v Damore, supra, and Saavedra v Ghannan, 183 Mich App 234; 454 NW2d 134 (1989).

We granted leave to appeal. 437 Mich 1046 (1991).

B

In Waranica v Cheers Good Time Saloons, Inc, the parents of decedent Deborah Waranica, Thomas and Barbara Waranica, and two siblings, Colleen and John Waranica, sued a liquor licensee, Cheers Good Time Saloons, claiming that the licensee unlawfully sold, gave or furnished alcohol to Deborah Waranica, a minor, before her death in a car accident on April 10, 1987. The plaintiffs claimed that, as a result of her intoxication, Deborah Waranica drove her car on the wrong side of a state highway and collided head-on with another car.

The defendant unsuccessfully sought summary disposition, contending that MCL 436.22 et seq.; MSA 18.993 et seq. did not provide a cause of action for the family of a minor who had been illegally served alcohol. The Court of Appeals granted the defendant leave to appeal the trial court’s order denying summary disposition.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s ruling, deciding that the minor’s family had a cause of action under the amended statute. The Court of Appeals took as its starting point the traditional interpretation of the dramshop act that precluded the intoxicated person’s action, the non-innocent party doctrine. It then examined the 1986 amendments to see whether the language [374]*374changed prior law to give the imbiber a cause of action. Disagreeing with the LaGuire Court’s rationale, the Waranica Court concluded that the Legislature did not intend to allow minors who are noninnocent parties to sue. Reviewing the effect of changes in subsections 4, 6, 8, and 10, the Court concluded that, although the minor’s suit was precluded by the noninnocent party doctrine, the family’s suit was permissible.

This Court granted the defendant leave to appeal and ordered that the case be argued and submitted to the Court together with LaGuire v Kain. 437 Mich 1046 (1991).

II

The dramshop act4 occupies the field of liability arising out of the selling, giving or furnishing of alcoholic liquor to minors or visibly intoxicated persons. Jackson v PKM Corp, 430 Mich 262, 279; 422 NW2d 657 (1988). In enacting the dramshop act, the Legislature created a new remedy, not available at common law, and "provided a specific action with which to achieve that remedy.” Browder v Int’l Fidelity Ins Co, 413 Mich 603, 613; 321 NW2d 668 (1982). This Court previously acknowledged that the Legislature has attempted to keep the act internally balanced, id. at 614, resulting in a "complete and self-contained solution to a social problem not adequately addressed at common law.” Id. at 615.

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LaGuire v. Kain
487 N.W.2d 389 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
487 N.W.2d 389, 440 Mich. 367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/laguire-v-kain-mich-1992.