By RUSS OLIVO

LINCOLN — The state Supreme Court has declined to hold a Manville couple liable for the injuries of a young woman who claimed she and her boyfriend were goaded into overindulging in alcohol at the couple’s home before their truck slammed into a utility pole on Old River Road in 2002.

The mother of Brianna Mari Serapiglia, who lost her leg in the crash, had asked the court to expand the limited scope of the state’s social host law. Serapiglia’s mother, Elizabeth Wills, appealed after a lower court summarily rejected the case, saying the law was inapplicable.
 Willis had asked the court to “create a new frontier that will better today’s society and provide a remedy for a victim in circumstances in which the social host’s hospitality” created an “atmosphere of reckless drinking and driving.” In an opinion issued Wednesday, however, the high court said it’s not the judiciary’s job to set public policy, however noble the cause.
“Although we are sympathetic to (the) plaintiff and to some of the public-policy issues that she addresses, we decline the invitation to overturn our well-settled precedent,” the high court said. “Whether an injured party should be able to maintain a cause of action arising from social host liability rests with the legislature, not the court.”
The Supreme Court said another law offers recourse to individuals who seek redress for actions resulting from alcohol obtained from a licensed vendor. And, in some cases, the social host law may provide recourse for minors who get into trouble after being unlawfully furnished with alcohol.
But Serapiglia was 22 and her boyfriend, Steven N. Grise, 24, when they became intoxicated at the home of Grise’s aunt and uncle, Maurice and Barbara Omar of Manville, also adults of legal drinking age.
The case stemmed from a crash that occurred on Aug. 30, 2002, when Serapiglia arrived at Grise’s apartment, also in Manville, for a planned dinner date. After drinking a kamikaze cocktail, they left in Grise’s 1975 pickup to meet the Omars at a Smithfield pizza restaurant, where Serapiglia and Grise each consumed two margaritas with their meal.
Upon leaving the restaurant, Serapliglia and Grise went to the Omars’ home, where Maurice produced “two pitchers of Long Island Iced Tea — a blend of vodka, tequila, rum, gin and Crème de Menthe. The high court’s record of the case says Maurice “fortified the beverages with Cabo Wabo Tequila,” a kind of high-proof spirit the defendant had purchased in Mexico.
“The record before us discloses that the defendants served these drinks to plaintiff and Grise ‘non-stop’ for more than three hours,” the high court said. “The plaintiff contends that Maurice encouraged her to continue drinking, telling her, ‘You’re Irish. You can do better than that.’”
Serapiglia later admitted to being “blurry eyed” when she left the Omars, and Grise was “staggering” when he got behind the wheel of his truck.
Serapiglia and Grise first went to her aunt’s house, where they tried to pick up Serapiglia’s cousin, but the aunt refused to let her daughter leave with them because she believed they were drunk.
With Grise behind the wheel, the two returned to his truck and drove off. Moments later, Grise crashed into a utility pole and surrounding rocks on Old River Road. Blood tests administered at Rhode Island Hospital determined that Grise’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit for driving and Serapiglia’s, more than three times.
Serapiglia suffered severe injuries, resulting in the amputation of a leg. Grise also faced criminal charges of operating under the influence, resulting in serious bodily injury, and driving to endanger, resulting in serious bodily injury.
Grise later entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to 10 years at the ACI, with two to serve. The plaintiff also sued him in civil court, settling a personal injury claim for $300,000, according to the high court.
In October 2003, Willis filed suit in Superior Court against the Omars, alleging negligence and civil liability under the social host law. But the court rejected the claims, saying that absent a “special relationship” between host and guest, the social host liability law does not apply.
“Although we have recognized social host liability in limited circumstances,” the Supreme Court said in affirming the decision, “we have done so when alcohol was illegally provided to minors and injuries resulted. Such a special relationship is not present in the case on appeal.”
One instance in which the court held that such a relationship existed involved the case of a high school graduation party where alcoholic beverages were provided for the guests. After a party-crasher struck one of the youths in the head with a baseball bat, the victim filed suit, prompting the court to hold the host responsible for safeguarding the youths from harm.
“Although supplying underage people with alcohol at a high school graduation party may trigger a special relationship, serving alcohol to an adult guest does not,” the high court said. “Furthermore, we have held that, even if minors unlawfully are furnished with alcoholic beverages, this act alone is insufficient to trigger a special relationship if the resulting risk of injury is not foreseeable.”
Willis had also proffered an alternative argument to hold the Omars responsible for her daughter’s injuries — namely, that they were somehow party to a criminal act by plying Serapiglia with alcohol. The court also rejected this claim, however.
The record of the case was “devoid of evidence that demonstrates any intent by the Omars to commit a crime,” the high court said. “Even when viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, this was a gathering of adults in a social setting where some adults knowingly over-indulged in alcoholic beverages.