Alcohol overserving liability bill passes to third reading after heated debate

Sen. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula, said the Senate Majority Leader’s bill on alcohol overserving liability was an “insurance bailout bill” during a heated exchange on the Senate floor on second reading Wednesday.

Senate Bill 107, proposed by Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, would limit a bar’s civil liability in overserving alcohol to patrons. The bill passed 33-17 Wednesday and will go to a third and final reading in the Senate.

The bill would also limit permissible evidence in civil cases to exclude the overserved patron’s blood alcohol content. Fitzpatrick said this is because there is no way to know in real time what that data point is, and it’s a “judgment call.”

The bill would also limit damages, both punitive and non-economic, like emotional distress, to $250,000 per incident.

Opponents said the bill benefits insurance companies and removes established protections for patrons. Proponents said bars are strapped with high insurance costs and deserve a break.

Fitzpatrick said the reasoning behind his bill was surrounding insurance claim costs. He said some bars are foregoing getting insurance at all, and the bill was not intended to protect people that act inappropriately.

“Prices are exploding,” he said.

Curdy said he knew what bar owners’ insurance rates were like, citing his experience as a former bar owner, and said if the bill passes, insurance rates won’t change in the state. He said as a bartender, he had to be cognizant of who was drinking and how much because of the “Dram Shop” law, a colloquialism referring to the current standard of liability.

“This bill would deny justice to anybody who has been victimized by a drunk driver,” he said.

Sen. Andrea Olsen, D-Missoula, said the bill would completely remove the deterrent for overserving. She said it was important to recognize the “epidemic” of driving under the influence of alcohol.

“This is one of the last deterrents we have,” Olsen said of the current Dram Shop laws.

She said even if this law would bring down prices — she believed it would not due to the current limit on damages — it’s still too high a price to pay for the other injured Montanans.

Fitzpatrick said a workers compensation bill in 2011 brought down rates when they were “the highest in the country” at that time, and they no longer are that way.

“What we do makes a difference. I’m quite certain this will make a difference as well,” he said.

Sen. Chris Friedel, R-Billings, said the question is whether the onus is on the bar or the person that served them, or the person drinking that caused the issue.

“If that’s the case, why don’t we make law that if somebody gets in a car accident, we should sue the car manufacturer?” Friedel said. “If someone sells him marijuana, should we sue the dispensary, because they gave them too much marijuana?”

Fitzpatrick said nothing is worse than when a client comes in who has been injured and there’s no money due to lack of insurance.

“We have to be able to have insurance that’s affordable so that people, when they do get hurt, they can be compensated,” he said. “This bill helps go in that direction.”

The bill was first heard last week in the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs committee. It passed 8-2.

The bill goes to third reading in the Senate on Thursday.