BILL NUMBER: AB 2486	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Feuer

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2010

   An act to amend Section 1714 of the Civil Code, relating to social
host liability.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2486, as introduced, Feuer. Social host liability: furnishing
alcohol to underage persons.
   Under existing law, a social host who furnishes alcoholic
beverages to any person may not be held legally accountable for
damages suffered by that person, or for injury to the person or
property of, or death of, any 3rd person, resulting from the
consumption of those beverages.
   This bill would provide that these provisions do not preclude a
claim against a social host who is 21 years of age or older who
knowingly furnishes alcoholic beverages to a person under 21 years of
age.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1714 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
   1714.  (a) Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his
or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by
his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his
or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully
or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or
herself. The design, distribution, or marketing of firearms and
ammunition is not exempt from the duty to use ordinary care and skill
that is required by this section. The extent of liability in these
cases is defined by the Title on Compensatory Relief.
   (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to abrogate the holdings
in cases such as Vesely v. Sager (1971) 5 Cal.3d 153, Bernhard v.
Harrah's Club (1976) 16 Cal.3d 313, and Coulter v. Superior Court
(1978) 21 Cal.3d 144 and to reinstate the prior judicial
interpretation of this section as it relates to proximate cause for
injuries incurred as a result of furnishing alcoholic beverages to an
intoxicated person, namely that the furnishing of alcoholic
beverages is not the proximate cause of injuries resulting from
intoxication, but rather the consumption of alcoholic beverages is
the proximate cause of injuries inflicted upon another by an
intoxicated person.
   (c)  No   Except as provided in subdivision
(d), no  social host who furnishes alcoholic beverages to any
person may be held legally accountable for damages suffered by that
person, or for injury to the person or property of, or death of, any
third person, resulting from the consumption of those beverages. 

   (d) Nothing in subdivision (c) shall preclude a claim against a
social host who is 21 years of age or older who knowingly furnishes
alcoholic beverages to a person under 21 years of age.