Craig v. Driscoll

SULLIVAN, C. J., with whom ZARELLA, J.,

joins, dissenting. Today the majority both overrules a case directly on point that properly had concluded that the Dram Shop Act (act) preempts the common law, and overrules more than 100 years of common-law precedent in creating a new cause of action for the negligent sale of alcohol. By doing so, the majority eviscerates a scheme of recovery that the legislature carefully had crafted in reliance upon these very long-standing, but now abandoned, common-law precedents. Because I believe, as this court has twice previously stated, that “[i]f the damage…