Sanders v. Crosstown Market3/16/1993
Rehearing Denied April 27, 1993.
STACIE LYNNE SANDERS, BY AND THROUGH HER PARENTS AND GUARDIANS, JAMES FRANKLIN SANDERS AND JEANNE MARIE SANDERS, APPELLANTS,
v.
CROSSTOWN MARKET, INC.; J.W. MORGAN, INC.; SCRIVNER, INC.; JERRY W. MORGAN AND FRED G. LATHAM, JR., APPELLEES.
On Certiorari to the Court of Appeals, Division 4.
Bill V. Wilkinson, Robyn Sanzalone, Wilkinson & Monaghan, Tulsa, for appellants.
Darrell E. Williams, Clark & Williams, Tulsa, for appellee Crosstown Market, Inc.
John R. Paul, Adam Scott Weintraub, Phil R. Richards, Richards, Paul, Richards & Siegel, Tulsa, for appellees Jerry M. Morgan and J.W. Morgan, Inc.
Derald E. Durbin, II, David B. Donchin, Durbin, Larimore & Bialick, Oklahoma City, for appellee Scrivner, Inc.
Ray H. Wilburn, Emily J. Crawford, A. Mark Smiling, Wilburn, Masterson & Smiling, Tulsa, for appellee Fred G. Latham, Jr.
CERTIORARI PREVIOUSLY GRANTED, COURT OF APPEALS OPINION VACATED, AND TRIAL COURT JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
The opinion of the court was delivered by: WATT, Justice.
This is an appeal from the trial court's order dismissing Appellants Sanderses' action against Appellees. The Court of Appeals reversed and ordered a trial on the merits. We granted certiorari to the Court of Appeals.
FACTS
Appellees owned and operated Crosstown Discount Foods, a grocery store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On March 6, 1987, Robbie Scott, age 16, bought beer from Crosstown for a party at his parents' house. One of Scott's guests was Appellant, Stacie Lynne Sanders, age 17. On March 7, 1987, Sanders was involved in an automobile accident while she was driving under the influence of alcohol. Sanders, and her parents through whom she sues, admit that Sanders became intoxicated. The Sanderses base their claim against Appellees on their contention that the beer Sanders drank was the beer Scott bought from Crosstown.
Scott was a former Crosstown employee . Thus, Crosstown's employees from whom Scott bought the beer knew Scott and knew that Scott was a minor. Scott had bought beer at Crosstown for other parties. The Sanderses did not allege that Crosstown's employees knew the purpose for which Scott bought the beer.
ISSUE
Do these facts state a cause of action against Appellees? We hold that they do not.
DISCUSSION
Current Law
The Sanderses urge us to extend our holding in Brigance v. Velvet Dove Restaurant, Inc., 725 P.2d 300 (Okla. 1986) to establish a cause of action against Appellees. In Brigance we created a narrow exception to the common law rule that a tavern keeper who sells alcohol to a customer is not liable for injuries resulting from the customer's drunkenness. In Brigance, a restaurant owner sold alcohol for on premises consumption to a noticeably intoxicated customer. After leaving the restaurant, the customer drove his car while drunk, wrecked it, and a passenger in his car was injured. We modified the common law rule in Brigance. We did not abrogate it. We created a cause of action for the innocent injured passenger against the restaurant owner. Our holding went no further.
We dealt with the issue again in Ohio Casualty Insurance Co. v. Todd, 813 P.2d 508 (Okla. 1991). There, a tavern owner had sold alcohol to a noticeably intoxicated adult customer who then drove his car and was injured because he was drunk. We refused to extend our holding in Brigance to protect the plaintiff because he kno
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