In September, a Delaware court discussed dram shop laws for the first time in at least five years. In a recent decision by the Superior Court regarding a motion to dismiss in a negligence action, a defendant relied on the dismissal of a similar case from 1981, which established that no dram shop cause of action exists in Delaware.
Dram shop laws stem from the Dram Shop Act, which allows for civil liability for an owner of a bar or restaurant that sells alcoholic beverages to an intoxicated person who then proceeds to injure another person as a consequence of their intoxication. The Supreme Court of Delaware has weighed in on this issue before, leaving the creation and enforcement of dram shop laws to the General Assembly. In essence, the court held the issue non-justiciable.
Delaware instead adopted a tort theory, imposing liability for known dangers and on bartenders and barkeepers who overserve intoxicated patrons. The Superior Court in Frei v. Jask, Inc. allowed the case to continue in the litigation process, while holding that dram shop liability does not exist in Delaware, but that does not mean all liability is lost for those who overserve the intoxicated.
The case is Frei v. Jask, Inc., No.: N23C-04-118 VLM, 2023 Del. Super. LEXIS 773.
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