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Selwyn v. Ward7/7/2005
At issue here is whether a purveyor of alcohol owes a duty to protect minors, to whom he or she allegedly supplied alcoholic beverages, from another person's deliberate act of pouring the alcohol over an open flame. The statutes regulating alcohol and minors reflect a public policy against underage drinking and not incendiary behavior. Martin, 871 A.2d at 916; see also G.L. 1956 § 3-14-6(a) ("A defendant * * * who negligently serves liquor to a minor is liable for damages proximately caused by the minor's consumption of the liquor."). (Emphasis added.)
Moreover, as in Martin, 871 A.2d at 915, 917, public policy is not the sole factor; foreseeability limits the scope of duty. Even if we assume, as we are required to do for purposes of our review, that RC Liquors sold the grain alcohol to Andrews, a minor, we are satisfied that defendant could not reasonably perceive the risk that several weeks later, while the minor was out of the country, some other youth would pour the substance onto an open flame, causing flames to engulf Selwyn. Selwyn was not injured as a result of consumption of the grain alcohol nor was she vulnerable to a dangerous condition created by defendant. No special duty arises from RC Liquors' alleged illegal sale of the Everclear to protect those placed in harm's way by the deliberate ignition of the alcohol by a third person.
Does Plaintiff Have a Cause of Action Under a Strict Liability Theory?
The plaintiff asserts that selling grain alcohol to a minor is an ultrahazardous activity, warranting application of strict liability. Whether a defendant has engaged in an ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous activity is a question of law. Splendorio, 682 A.2d at 465. Strict liability attaches when a plaintiff's injuries are proximately caused by some ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous activity of the defendant but not when they are caused by an ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous material. Id. at 465-66. To determine whether an activity is ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous, courts in this jurisdiction consider the following factors:
"(a) existence of high degree of risk of some harm to the person, land or chattels of others; "(b) likelihood that the harm that results from it will be great; "(c) inability to eliminate the risk by the exercise of reasonable care; "(d) extent to which the activity is not a matter of common usage; "(e) inappropriateness of the activity to the place where it is carried on; and "(f) extent to which its value to the community is outweighed by its dangerous attributes." Id. at 466 (quoting 3 Restatement (Second) Torts § 520 (1977)).
To give our analysis some perspective, the drafters explained that: "The harm threatened must be major in degree, and sufficiently serious in its possible consequences to justify holding the defendant strictly responsible for subjecting others to an unusual risk." 3 Restatement (Second) Torts § 520, cmt. g at 38. They provided the following examples of the type of harm:
"Some activities, such as the use of atomic energy, necessarily and inevitably involve major risks of harm to others, no matter how or where they are carried on. Others, such as the storage of explosives, necessarily involve major risks unless they are conducted in a remote place or to a very limited extent. Still others, such as the operation of a ten-ton traction engine on the public highway, which crushes conduits beneath it, involve such a risk only because of the place where they are carried on." Id.
With these benchmarks in mind, while we do not mean to trivialize the risks associated with providing minors with alcoholic beverages, flammable or otherwise, such activity does no
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