From "Maine Law" to Model Act: Liquor Liability in Maine

With the passage of the Maine Liquor Liability Act by the 112th Legislature, the State of Maine has completed a thorough reexamination of its public policy in the area of liability for injuries resulting from the use of alcoholic beverages. For 130 years the state's policy in this area was expressed by the statute commonly known as the dram shop act, the essential provisions of which had remained unchanged for over a century. This statute held sellers and other providers of alcoholic beverages strictly liable to any third party injured as a result of the intoxication of the recipient of the liquor if the liquor were provided in violation of law. For reasons detailed below, this act had outlived its usefulness by the mid-1980's and was ripe for replacement by a more flexible and carefully reasoned policy. While enactment of the Maine Liquor Liability Act was spurred by an upsurge of litigation under dram shop acts in Maine and elsewhere, the new Act also reflects a change in public attitudes toward the responsible use of alcohol. This Comment reviews the historical development of the state's policy in this area, from the immunity from suit which a server of liquor enjoyed under the common law to the opposite extreme of a standard of strict liability for such service, imposed by statutes passed during a period of statewide prohibition. This Comment discusses the social changes that rendered the policy established in the late nineteenth century increasingly inappropriate, and that encouraged the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to consider alternative remedies in the pertinent common law doctrines. These developments led the Legislature to scrap Maine's venerable dram shop act in favor of a carefully crafted statute balancing the duties and liabilities of servers and drinkers of alcoholic beverages. Finally, this Comment examines the provisions of the Maine Liquor Liability Act, describing its legislative evolution from a model act proposed in a California law review into a statute that may serve as a model to other states that are attempting to strike a just balance in this difficult area of the law.