On behalf of Michael Alan Strauch, Wills & Adams, LLP sued a nightclub and its owner (Build It & They Will Drink, Inc., doing business as Eden Nightclub, and Rodney Owen Beers) for having served a visibly intoxicated patron who later stabbed Mr. Strauch.
The district court granted summary judgment against Mr. Strauch by imposing proof of proximate causation -- that is, reasonable foreseeability -- as an element of the claim even though the legislature abolished common law tort actions in this area and imposed limited liability upon alcohol vendors for injuries caused to third parties by their intoxicated patrons under Colorado Revised Statute 12-47-801(1) & (3) [2009].
Wills & Adams, LLP appealed the decision to the Colorado Court of Appeals where it successfully argued that the trial court was in error because a plaintiff must only prove that the vendor's improper service of alcohol caused the patron's intoxication and that the patron's intoxication caused the injuries, but not that the vendor should have foreseen those injuries.
The Colorado Court of Appeals agreed with Wills & Adams, LLP and reversed the judgment of the trial court.
The Defendants pursued a Writ of Certiorari to the Colorado Supreme Court where the case was also successfully argued by Wills & Adams, LLP.
On June 6, 2011, the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Colorado Court of Appeals returning the case to the trial court for further proceedings.
