The Dram Shop: Closing Pandora's Box
![handle is hein.journals/indilr22 and id is 499 raw text is: The Dram Shop: Closing Pandora's Box
WILLIAM HURST*
I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The dram shop' has been condemned since the time of Babylon2
as an unequaled source of crime and misery to society.3 The over-
indulgence occurring in saloons has long been considered a subject for
moral and legal condemnation.4 The preamble of the British Statutes of
15525 stated that the intolerable hurts and troubles to the commonwealth
of this realm doth daily grow and increase through such abuses and
disorders as are had and used in common ale-houses and ... tippling-
houses.6
From early English legislation to the present time, statutes in various
forms have been enacted to suppress the evils which the use or abuse
of inebriating liquors has wrought.7 There has never been any doubt as
to the menace the drunk poses for our society. The Presidential Com-
mission on Drunk Driving' states that fifty percent of all fatal accidents
are caused by alcohol abuse. In Indiana, during the years 1981 to 1986,
alcohol-related vehicle accidents . . . resulted in 53,429 persons injured
and 1,554 deaths.9 The impact of these statistics has caused the state
judiciaries and legislatures across the country to act in an effort to solve
the problems occurring with the abuse of alcohol.
The advent of civil liability and dram shop acts creating liability
upon the provider of alcohol is an offspring of this judicial and legislative
activity. The imposition of civil liability (as opposed to criminal liability)
* Partner, Mitchell, Hurst, Jacobs & Dick, Indianapolis. B.A., Indiana University,
1962; J.D., with distinction, Indiana University, 1966. The author gratefully acknowledges
the efforts of his research assistants, Scott Ballantine and Olivia Napariu.
1. Black's Law Dictionary defines dram shop as [a] drinking establishment
where liquors are sold to be drunk on the premises; a bar or saloon. BLACK'S LAW
DICnoONARY 444 (5th ed. 1979).
2. Howie, Three Hundred Years of the Liquor Problem in Massachusetts, 18
MAss. L. Q. 79 (1933).
3. Crowley v. Christensen, 137 U.S. 86, 91 (1890).
4. 45 AM. JUR. 2D Intoxicating Liquors § 1 (1969).
5. British Statutes at Large, 1540-52, Ch. 25, p. 391.
6. Sopher v. State, 169 Ind. 177, 184, 81 N.E. 913, 915 (1907) (quoting British
Statutes at Large, 1540-52, Ch. 25, p. 391).
7. Id. at 915-16.
8. Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving, Final Report at 1 (1983).
9. Picadilly, Inc. v. Colvin, 519 N.E.2d 1217, 1220 (Ind. 1988) (citing Governor's
Task Force to Reduce Drunk Driving, 1987 Progress Report 12).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/indilr22&div=27&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Dram Shop: Closing Pandora's Box
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