DRAM-SHOP ACT

dram-shop act.A statute allowing a plaintiff to recover damages from a commercial seller of

alcoholic beverages for the plaintiff’s injuries caused by a customer’s intoxication. — Also termed

civil-liability  act;  civil-damage  law.  [Cases:  Intoxicating  Liquors    282–324.  C.J.S.  Intoxicating

Liquors §§ 428–463.]

“Largely at the behest of the temperance  movement, statutes (called ‘dram shop acts’) were

enacted  in  many  states  which  imposed  some  form  of  civil  liability  on  those  engaged  in  the

business of selling such beverages in favor of third persons injured thereby …. At one time, almost

half the states had such laws; today, that number seems to be declining…. A growing minority of

states have overthrown the common law rule and have created a common law dram shop action. In

most  of  these  jurisdictions,  liability  is  predicated  on  statutes  which  regulate  the  liquor  business

and prohibit certain sales by liquor licensees (to minors, intoxicated persons, etc.) thus, where the

sale is unlawful, it is negligence per se ….” Edward J. Kionka, Torts in a Nutshell 293–94 (2d ed.

1992). [Blacks Law 8th]