Coulter v. Superior Court

Opinion

RICHARDSON, J.

We consider whether the noncommercial suppliers of alcoholic beverages may be liable to third persons injured by reason of the intoxication of the consumer of those beverages. We will conclude that a social host who furnishes alcoholic beverages to an obviously intoxicated person, under circumstances which create a reasonably foreseeable risk of harm to others, may be held legally accountable to those third persons who are injured when that harm occurs. We examine the pleading posture of the case, trace the evolution of civil liability imposed on those who furnish…