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Estate of Ruben A. Hernandez v. Arizona Board of Regents11/29/1991
ed § 4-301 in 1985 also enacted § 4-312 the very next year. By its express language, § 4-312(B) provides immunity to anyone who furnishes alcohol to another, regardless of age, who subsequently causes injury or death to a third person. Both statutes thus appear to address the same issue in different ways, and we must resolve the apparent conflict between them.
There are a number of applicable rules of statutory construction to guide us in that endeavor. First, statutes are to be liberally construed "to effect their objects and to promote justice." A.R.S. § 1-211(B). We must construe a statute "in the context of related provisions and in light of its place in the statutory scheme." City of Phoenix v. Superior Court, 144 Ariz. 172, 176, 696 P.2d 724, 728 (App.1985). When two statutes seemingly conflict, we must harmonize them if possible, "in the absence of a manifest legislative intent to the contrary." Mead, Samuel & Co. v. Dyar, 127 Ariz. 565, 568, 622 P.2d 512, 515 (App.1980). That effort to harmonize them requires us to find the legislative intent of both by examining "the words, context, subject matter, effects and consequences, reason, and spirit of the law." Arnold Construction Co. v. Arizona Board of Regents, 109 Ariz. 495, 498, 512 P.2d 1229, 1232 (1973). When we determine, however, that two statutes are "in irreconcilable conflict, the general rule is that the more recent one prevails." Mead, 127 Ariz. at 568, 622 P.2d at 515.
An examination of the issue of civil liability for the furnishing or serving of alcoholic beverages begins with the cases of Ontiveros v. Borak, 136 Ariz. 500, 667 P.2d 200 (1983), and Brannigan v. Raybuck, 136 Ariz. 513, 667 P.2d 213 (1983). Prior to 1983, tavern owners were not liable for damages that resulted from the serving of liquor. In Ontiveros, the supreme court abolished that common law doctrine as to an intoxicated adult who left a tavern and injured a third person. It did the same in Brannigan as to intoxicated sixteen and seventeen-year-olds who left a tavern and crashed into a wall. Neither case addressed the issue of social host liability.
In April 1985, the legislature enacted § 4-301, presumably in response to those cases, to prevent the extension of such liability to social hosts. The act that included § 4-301 also amended A.R.S. § 4-244, which proscribes various acts related to the sale of spirituous liquors. That act was adopted as an emergency measure and became effective immediately. A week later, this court held that a social host was not liable to a third person who was injured
by an intoxicated guest, over the age of 21, who had been furnished alcohol by the social host. Keckonen v. Robles, 146 Ariz. 268, 705 P.2d 945 (App.1985).
The act that includes § 4-312 was approved by the governor in May 1986. 1986 Ariz. Sess. Laws ch. 329. It contains only two sections, 4-311 and 4-312. Section 4-311 provides that a licensee is liable for personal injury, property damage, and/or wrongful death that results from the licensee's sale of liquor to an obviously intoxicated purchaser or to a person whom the licensee either knows is under 21 or from wh
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