Recent Court Decisions.

This article focuses on the ruling of the Court of Appeals of Minnesota in the case Beseke versus Garden Center Inc. The Court held that a student's action against a school district and its employees based on negligent supervision of intoxicated students at a school sponsored event called Bowl-A-Thon was precluded by a statute insulating a social host from liability for negligently providing liquor to intoxicated persons. Two of the students who participated in the event, sponsored and supervised in part by their technical school, became intoxicated and disorderly. They were objected from the bowling alley. After leaving they caused an automobile accident. Those injured sued the school district. The trial court dismissed the action. The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal on the grounds that the Minnesota Civil Damages Act, an act worded very similar to Alabama's Dram Shop Act, was the exclusively remedy for injuries resulting from the distribution of intoxicating liquor. As such, the Appeals Court reasoned that there was no common law cause of action against a social host. Regarding the Civil Damage Act, the court noted the legislative removal of the word giving from the Act which it interpreted to mean that the Act only applied to commercial vendors.