NM Supreme Court Makes Gas Stations Liable for DUIs

[jcgriff2]

Also auto parts stores, tire stores and others.

 

[Corday]

The Trial Lawyers are in the majority in State Legislatures and this is the result.

 

[Digerati]

I can see how this might apply if the drunk comes into the store and is clearly impaired. But if they stay outside at the pump and use their credit card, and are not clearly stumbling over themselves, I don't see how the station owner can be held liable.

 

[jcgriff2]

I can see how this might apply if the drunk comes into the store and is clearly impaired. But if they stay outside at the pump and use their credit card, and are not clearly stumbling over themselves, I don't see how the station owner can be held liable.

I do agree with you. I have not yet actually read the New Mexico Supremes decision to find out which it was.

I wonder what will happen with EV charging stations. I don't know if they are all self-serve (100% unmanned) or have attendants.

 

[jcgriff2]

The DUI driver did have interaction with the gas station employee -

I. BACKGROUND​

{3} Plaintiff Franklin J. Morris, as Personal Representative of the Wrongful Death Estate of Marcellino Morris, Jr., originally filed his complaint in the District Court of the Navajo Nation. The district court found on summary judgment that Plaintiff’s complaint was barred because the Navajo Nation’s two-year statute of limitations for personal injury had lapsed.[1] Plaintiff filed a parallel action in the New Mexico Eleventh Judicial District Court alleging, in part, that Defendant, Giant Four Corners, negligently entrusted gasoline to an intoxicated driver who subsequently killed Plaintiff’s son in an auto accident. Defendant removed the case to the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico.

A. The Accident​

{4} In his pleadings before the United States District Court, Plaintiff provided the following factual background of the events in question. On December 29 and 30, 2011, during a night of drinking extending into the early morning, Andy Denny drove his automobile until it ran out of gasoline near Tohatchi, New Mexico. Denny and his passenger walked to Defendant’s gas station in Tohatchi to purchase gasoline so that Denny could continue driving. Upon arrival at the gas station, both Denny and his passenger were intoxicated.

{5} While at the gas station, Denny learned that there were no empty gas cans for sale. Denny and his passenger decided to purchase a gallon of water and empty it to use as a container for gasoline. Initially, because they were intoxicated, the clerk working at the gas station would not sell anything to Denny or his passenger, but the clerk ultimately sold the gallon of water and a gallon of gasoline to Denny. After filling the gallon container with gas, Denny and his passenger left on foot and walked back to Denny’s vehicle. Denny and his passenger then drove back to the gas station and purchased an additional nine gallons of gasoline for Denny’s car.

Too bad that the store clerk did not stick to his original decision.

The suit was filed in the Navajo Nation court who granted a summary judgment to defendant. So then he files in US Court? I think that this case may end up in the US Supreme Court. If the gas station was located in the Navajo Nation, New Mexico does not have jurisdiction over it as far as I know.

The NM Supreme Court decision - Morris v. Giant Four Corners, Inc. - NMOneSource.com

 

[Digerati]

Having spent much of my youth and young adult years in Tucson, San Manual, Phoenix and Albuquerque, I learned jurisdictions on Indian reservations are weird and tricky. Tribal courts have jurisdiction over all civil cases. And criminal cases too "IF" the crime is against tribal law. If not against tribal law, then it becomes very "iffy" with much depending on "if" your are a native American or not, "if" you are a member of that reservation's tribe, "if" you live on that reservation, who you know, and likely a bunch more "ifs" too. Plus the tribal courts can hand over just about any case they don't want to deal with to the "off" jurisdiction authorities too - again depending on those "ifs" and, apparently, at the whim of the tribal court.

What I see in that specific lawsuit is shysters at work. Ambulance chasers trying to cash-in anyway they can. For sure - bottom feeding scumbags who should be barred and disbarred - if you catch my drift.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
-William Shakespeare