City Brewing Company LLC, a brewer of Four Loko, can be held liable in the death of a college student shot to death by police after he drank two cans of the alcoholic beverage infused with caffeine, the California Fifth Court of Appeal ruled.
The court held that California’s dram shop statutes do not immunize City Brewing Company from any possible products liability because the brewer did not furnish the Four Lokos to the college student. The term “furnishing” to an “intoxicated person” in California’s dram shop statutes “suggests the furnisher would have some way of knowing whether or not the person was intoxicated, which further suggests that a furnisher would have some control over who received the beverage,” Judge Dennis A. Cornell said. “This type of awareness and control is possible for social hosts, taverns, bars, and restaurants, but not for manufacturers who are far removed from the ultimate consumer.”
