Lawyers handling dram shop cases must be thoroughly familiar with the Texas Dram Shop Act’s safe-harbor provision and the cases interpreting it, because the application of the provision can be outcome-determinative.
In El Chico Corp. v. Poole (1987), the Texas Supreme Court recognized that the foreseeable likelihood of causing injury by serving alcohol to an obviously intoxicated person is as great as one would expect from releasing a rattlesnake in a shopping mall. That same year, the Texas Legislature enacted the dram shop act to protect “the welfare, health, peace, temperance, and safety of people of the State.”
