89 Pa. Super. 295 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1926
Argued October 13, 1926.
We agree with the learned court below that in the existing state of federal and state legislation if a man illegally purchases intoxicating liquor and is injured in consequence of drinking it, by reason of its alcoholic content, he himself has no right of action against the person who likewise violated the law by selling it. Under the Volstead Act (Act of Congress of October 28, 1919, c. 85), it is unlawful to purchase — no less than manufacture or sell — intoxicating liquors, without a permit from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and this must now be remembered in construing our own Act of May 8, 1854, P.L. 663; for when the case of Littell v. Young,
But that is not this case. Construing the facts most favorably to the plaintiff, as we are required to do, following the verdict in his favor, it is found that the plaintiff's injuries were not the result of the prohibited alcohol contained in the liquor sold him by the defendant but of creosote and other poisons not proper ingredients of whiskey — which defendant purported to sell him — and rendering it unfit for drinking purposes. It has long been the rule in this State that the mere fact that the plaintiff was himself violating the law in a given particular at the time of the occurrence complained of, will not bar his right of action against the defendant unless such violation of law was an efficient *298
cause of the injury. Thus in Mohney v. Cook,
The purpose of the Volstead Act was to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution, prohibiting the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors. It is not concerned with poisonous adulterants. For any damage naturally resulting from, or caused by, the alcoholic liquors whose purchase or sale for beverage purposes is forbidden *299 by law, a violator of the law can have no remedy by action against his fellow violator; but even one who violates the law by purchasing such liquors is not thereby divested of all his legal rights or subjected to being poisoned without recourse against the poisoner. The injuries for which he can have no legal redress are those naturally resulting from his violation of law and of which such violation was the efficient cause; in this instance, from the purchase of whiskey, forbidden by the federal prohibition enforcement act. They do not include those resulting from the unintentional drinking of poison furnished either knowingly or negligently by one purporting to sell him a drink fit for beverage purposes and harmful only because of its alcoholic content.
The jury in this case passed upon all the disputed questions of fact, including the dereliction of the defendant, the harmful effects of the poisonous ingredients on the plaintiff, and the latter's contributory negligence, and decided them in favor of the plaintiff.
With this state of fact before us we are of opinion, for the reasons given above, that the court below erred in entering judgment for the defendant non obstante veredicto.
The assignment of error is sustained. The judgment is reversed and the record remitted to the court below with directions to enter judgment for the plaintiff on the verdict.