Alaska Supreme Court Gives Bad Bars a Pass

Mike Schneider

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 485

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It has been the law for decades, that if a bar served a minor or an obviously drunken person with "criminal negligence," the bar was responsible for all the harm caused by the drunken person or minor in question. This was the "trade off" for the bar's immunity from liability when it was guilty of no more than "ordinary negligence." But that rule came to an end with the Alaska Supreme Court's decision in the Sowinski case, issued 12/31/08. That case, a 3 to 2 decision by the Court, held that the strict several liability provisions of AS 09.17.080 demanded that the fault of the bar get compared to the fault of the minor or drunk and damages paid according to fault. The ruling, another driving home the impact of various "tort reforms," will keep claims from being brought against bad bars. They will simply be too risky to pursue. Criminally negligent sellers of alcohol will have "tort reformed" themselves into immunity. That was the plan all along.