Smith v. Merritt

in which PHILLIPS, Chief Justice, and GONZALEZ, CORNYN, ENOCH, SPECTOR and BAKER, Justices, join.

The issue in this case is whether a social host can be liable in negligence or negligence per se for injuries resulting from the host’s provision of alcohol to a nineteen-year-old guest.1 Because the Legislature has estab*604lished a policy against such causes of action, we decline to expand the common law to include those claims. Accordingly, the court of appeals’ judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part, and we render judgment that the Smiths take nothing.

I

Nineteen-year-old Robert Barbee…