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Grady v. Cedar Side Inn Inc.6/24/1998
S 30.950 provided a remedy to the plaintiff. In that case, the plaintiff brought an action against a tavern owner and others for damages because of injuries suffered in an off-premises knife attack by an intoxicated patron of the tavern. The court held that no statutory action under ORS 30.950 could be maintained by the plaintiff. The court explained:
"Members of the 1979 legislature would be surprised to hear that in attempting to limit the liability of servers of alcoholic beverages to the standard stated in Campbell, they instead created licensee and permittee liability for all actions of an intoxicated customer upon satisfaction of the standard first stated in Campbell, i.e., serving a visibly intoxicated person. Throughout the committee hearings, members assumed that the issue was the extent of licensee and permittee liability for injuries caused by intoxicated motorists under then existing caselaw and how such caselaw should be modified; at not time did anyone cite a fact pattern or example involving liability outside the context of automobile or traffic related injuries." Id. at 22.
The court concluded, " his plaintiff is not within the class of person intended to be protected by the statute and the harm is not of a type intended to be protected against." Id. at 24.
In summary, ORS 30.950 governs plaintiff's action because he seeks to hold defendants liable for his injuries for providing alcoholic beverages to Elliott, who was visibly intoxicated at the time. The statute as interpreted by the Supreme Court acts as a limitation on common law claims against alcohol providers and bars those claims unless the circumstances alleged fall within the exception created by the legislature. Because of the statute's limiting effects on common law actions against alcohol providers, only "third parties" as that term was contemplated by the legislature, can maintain an action against alcohol providers for serving alcoholic beverages. The issue squarely presented by the appeal in this case is whether plaintiff is such a "third party" under ORS 30.950.
The answer to that inquiry is found in the reasoning of the Supreme Court decisions interpreting the statute. In Sager, the court held that an intoxicated patron was not a "third party" for purposes of ORS 30.950, because the language of the statute "logically limits relief rather than expands it." 296 Or at 39. The court noted, " thorough reading of the minutes of the committee hearings on HB 3152 fails to reveal a single mention of creating a claim in favor of injured patrons." Id. In Solberg v. Johnson, 306 Or 484, 760 P2d 867 (1988), a tavern owner, who had settled claims against him by a third person injured in an automobile accident by an intoxicated patron of the tavern, brought a third-party action for contribution against the patron's stepfather. The owner alleged that the stepfather had purchased alcoholic beverages for his visibly intoxicated stepson at the tavern. Id. At 487-88. Following its holding in Wiener, the court focused on who had the direct control over determining who drank and how much. Solberg, 306 Or at 491-92. Because the tavern alleged that the stepfather had bought alcoholic beverages for the stepson when the stepson was visibly intoxicated, the court held that the stepfather was a "social host" within the meaning of former ORS 30.955 and permitted the tavern owner to bring the stepfather into the action as a third-party defendant.
The holdings in Sager and Solberg provide the test that plaintiff's claim must pass in order to survive the limiting effect of the statute: whether classifying plaintiff as a third party will exceed the court's holding under Campbell and the legislature's desire
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