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Berte v. Bode2/11/2005
s was attached to Berte's resistance. In the affidavit, the former girlfriend states that Bode was generally a nice guy, however, he "became more violent and aggressive when drunk."
Following a hearing, the district court overruled the motion. Thereafter, we granted Pep's application for interlocutory appeal.
III. Issue
Pep's contends on appeal as it did in the district court that as a matter of law the sale and service of liquor to a person is not a proximate cause of that person's later act of intentional murder. Rather, the intentional act of murder is a superseding intervening cause that breaks the casual link between the intoxication and the intoxicated person's later injurious acts. For that reason, Pep's argues, it should, as a matter of law, be relieved of liability in this case. The district court, Pep's further argues, erred in concluding otherwise.
IV. Analysis
A. Background
According to one writer,
t common law, courts refused to recognize a cause of action arising out of the sale or furnishing of intoxicating beverages. The rationale underlying this refusal was that individuals, drunk or sober, were responsible for their own torts. The courts held that drinking the intoxicant, not furnishing it, was the proximate cause of the injury. In other words, the common law considers the act of selling the intoxicating beverage as too remote to serve as the proximate cause of an injury resulting from the negligent conduct of the purchaser of the drink.
Richard Smith, Note, A Comparative Analysis of Dramshop Liability and a Proposal for Uniform Legislation, 25 J. Corp. L. 553, 555 (2000); see also Slager v. HWA Corp., 435 N.W.2d 349, 351 (Iowa 1989).
Like a number of states, Iowa passed what is commonly referred to as a dramshop statute. Slager, 435 N.W.2d at 351. The statute gives parties who are injured by the intoxication of other persons a right of action against the persons from whom the intoxicants were procured. Id. One of the earliest statutes was before this court in Bistline v. Ney Bros., 134 Iowa 172, 111 N.W. 422 (1907). The statute in question provided:
Every wife, child, parent, guardian, employer or other person who shall be injured in person or property or means of support by any intoxicated person, or in consequence of the intoxication . . . shall have a right of action in his or her own name against any person who shall, by selling or giving to another contrary to the provisions of this chapter any intoxicating liquors, cause the intoxication of such person, for all damages actually sustained, as well as exemplary damages . . . .
Iowa Code Ann. § 2418 (1897) (emphasis added).
The italicized language "by any intoxicated person" remains in our present day statute. Compare Iowa Code Ann. § 2418 (1897), with Iowa Code § 123.92 para. 1 (2001). The italicized language "in consequence of the intoxication" has been replaced by similar language: "resulting from the intoxication of a person." Id.
The present day statute, which is the subject of this action, provides:
Any person who is injured in person or property or means of support by an intoxicated person or resulting from the intoxication of a person, has a right of action for all damages actually sustained, severally or jointly, against any licensee or permittee, whether or not the license or permit was issued by the division or by the licensing authority of any other state, who sold and served any beer, wine, or intoxicating liquor to the intoxicated person when the licensee or permittee knew or should have known the person was intoxicated, or who sold to an
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