Wright v. Moffitt’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
2 district · 38 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 40 later decisions — most recently August 2015 · most notably El Chico Corp. v. Poole (1987), Ling v. Jan's Liquors (1985)
2 district · 38 state decisions — followed in 15 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 5 Cal. 3d 153 - Vesely v. Sager · Rappaport v. Nichols · Nolan v. Morelli · 22 Ill. 2d 23 - Cunningham v. Brown · State v. Hatfield
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We do not suggest that Dram Shop liability, or a responsibility akin to it, is undesirable public policy or that adoption in Delaware would lend to illogical or unfair results. On the contrary, we think that a law which imposes some such responsibility on a licensee who wilfully or carelessly serves alcohol to an intoxicated patron has much to commend it. But, in our view, the General Assembly is in a far better position than this Court to gather the empirical data and to make the fact finding necessary to determine what the public policy should be as to a Dram Shop law, and the scope of any such law.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“It is settled Delaware law that the violation of a statute enacted for the safety of others is negligence in law or negligence per se. To be actionable, however, there must be a causal connection between such a statutory violation and the injury alleged. And a plaintiff who invokes a statute must be "a member of the class of persons for whose protection or benefit the statute was enacted.” Applying those principles, we conclude that Wright does not have a right of recovery against defendant for violation of § 711 or § 713. While the requisite causal connection might not be shown in this case, it is unnecessary to decide that issue. We say this because we are persuaded that Wright was not within the protected class of persons to which the Statutes were directed. And that is fatal to his claim.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Oakes v. Megaw“[S]hould any such liability extend to a hotel dining room or restaurant owner (or to a social host) as well as to a “tavern” owner? should it extend to assaults or other torts by an inebriated patron? to whom should such a cause of action accrue? should there be a special rule for minors? And inevitably, if a cause of action were recognized under any of these circumstances, a commercial dispenser of alcoholic beverages (and, probably, a social host) would be a party to every suit in which an intoxicated person is alleged to have committed a tor-tious act.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Samson v. Smith
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.