High court to consider host’s liability for death after underage-drinking party

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In a case involving a 17-year-old boy’s death, Maryland’s top court will consider whether a parent who allegedly hosted an underage drinking party owed a legal duty to the young attendees such that she can be held liable for the death of a drunken partygoer.

Lower courts have dismissed Nancy Davis’ lawsuit seeking to hold the party’s host, Linda Stapf, liable for the death of Davis’ son.

Steven Dankos was killed when the pickup truck he was riding in crashed in early morning hours of Nov. 29, 2009, as he was leaving the Ellicott City party. Dankos allegedly had been drinking at the party, as had the vehicle’s 22-year-old driver, David Erdman.

Erdman, who had a blood-alcohol content more than twice the legal limit, pleaded guilty vehicular homicide and was sentenced in 2010 to five years in prison with all but 18 months suspended, according to court documents.

The intermediate Court of Special Appeals last month upheld the Howard County Circuit Court’s dismissal of Davis’ lawsuit, saying the hosting of an underage drinking party does not legally bind the host to harm resulting from the drinking, particularly when the injury or death results from actions of a third party, in this case Erdman.

The court also said Maryland’s criminal law barring adults from “willfully and knowingly” allowing individuals under age 21 from consuming alcohol on their property provides no civil cause of action for injuries resulting from violation of the statute.

Maryland law imposes no liability for “social hosts” of parties at which alcohol is served and from which injuries result, the court added.

If Davis’ claim is correct, Stapf “acquiesced to underage persons drinking alcohol at her home,” the Court of Special Appeals said in its Aug. 26 reported opinion. “That acquiescence does not equate to the assumption of duty.”

Davis sought review by the Court of Appeals, which on Thursday agreed to hear the appeal. The high court will hear arguments in the case in February and is expected to issue its decision by Aug. 31, according to the Court of Appeals’ clerk’s office.

The case is Nancy Davis et al. v. Linda Stapf, No. 55, Sept. Term 2015.

‘Special relationship’

In their successful petition for high-court review, Davis’ attorneys argued that the criminal prohibition on providing alcohol to the underaged “was enacted for the express protection of minors, and imposes upon property owners a special duty which exists independent of common law social host liability.”

The attorneys also contended an adult host who “serves, permits or facilitates” underage drinking at a party creates a “special relationship” to their young guests independent of the criminal law.

“This duty to minors is unique and is separate from any duty a property owner owes to invitees generally,” wrote Timothy F. Maloney and Matthew M. Bryant, of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake P.A. in Greenbelt. “If Steven, a minor, were 10 or 12 years old and had become intoxicated, few would doubt Ms. Stapf’s legal and moral duty to contact his parents and obtain immediate medical assistance. But this duty is no less imperative because Steven was 17, and not 10 or 12. He is still a minor.”

Stapf’s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment Friday. Stapf is represented by Clifford A. Robinson and Lauren S. Capelle of H. Barritt Peterson Jr. & Associates in Towson.

According to Davis’ lawsuit, Stapf bought about $115 worth of alcohol for the Nov. 28, 2009, party at her home, which she knew would be attended by high school students. Stapf appeared at least four times at the party, held largely in her garage, and saw numerous underage teenagers drinking the alcohol but told nobody to stop and took no steps to prevent intoxication, the lawsuit stated.

Erdman’s sister warned Stampf that he was too drunk to drive, but the host did nothing to stop him, the lawsuit stated.

Shortly after, Erdman drove from the party in his parent’s GMC pickup truck, with Dankos riding in the bed. The crash occurred on Folly Quarter Road, with Dankos being thrown from the vehicle and killed.

Davis filed suit on Nov. 27, 2012. A Howard County Circuit judge dismissed it the following year.