(Stock photo)

The New Jersey Supreme Court granted a petition for certification in a case involving civil claims against an adult teen who hosted a drinking party at his home for other adult teens, one of whom subsequently died in a fatal crash.

All of the teens involved were over 18 years old but below the legal drinking age of 21.

In Estate of Narleski v. Gomes, defendant Amboy Food Liquor and News Inc., sold three 24 oz. cans of beer and a half-gallon of vodka to 19-year-old Brandon Tyler Narleski without checking his ID on Nov. 9, 2014, according to court documents.

Narleski later that night went to his friend Mark Zwierzynski's home. They partied and drank in Zwierzynski's bedroom, and Narleski left afterward as a passenger in the car of one of his inebriated friends, Nicholas Gomes. He died when Gomes lost control of his vehicle, crashed into a center median and flipped the car over. Narleski, who wasn't wearing a seat belt at the time, was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, documents said.

After Narleski's death, his estate sued and settled with Gomes, and the vehicle's owners, Orquivanes and Sergio Gomes, and Amboy Food under the Dram Shop Act.

Amboy Food in turn sued Zwierzynski in a third-party complaint, contending that Zwierzynski and his parents, Mercedes Apraez and Zdzislaw Zwierzynski, had a duty not to allow underage drinking in the home.

Zwierzynski and his parents moved for summary judgment, because, they said, they owed no such duty.

A judge granted their summary judgment motion on March 29, 2018, concluding that they did not have a legal duty to supervise the guests—who were under the drinking age but still were adults.

On appeal, Amboy Food argued that the court should recognize a legal duty of the owners or occupants of a home to prevent underage individuals from consuming alcohol there. It asserted that Zwierzynski and his parents respectively engaged in negligent conduct that supports civil liability.

In affirming summary judgment to the third-party defendants, the appellate court agreed with the trial court that the parents owed no statutory or common law duty to prevent their adult son from allowing his underage friends to consume alcohol in his room without the parents' knowledge or consent.

The court did recognize a legal duty for defendants in Mark Zwierzynski's situation. Though the panel didn't apply that duty retroactively to him, it wrote: "Prospectively, however, we hold that an adult such as Mark Zwierzynski who is under the legal drinking age shall owe a common law duty to injured parties to desist from facilitating the drinking of alcohol by underage adults in his place of residence, regardless of whether he owns, rents, or manages the premises.

"Such a rule of law is a logical extension of Thomas and Morella, and is consistent with the policy objectives of related statutes," wrote Appellate Division Judge Jack Sabatino in the June 6, 2019, opinion.

"We need not resolve here whether a claim for contribution or indemnity by a Dram Shop defendant against an underage social host seeking to diminish its liability would be viable or instead contrary to public policy. We recognize that the common law rule of liability we have endorsed goes beyond the scope of the disorderly persons statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:33-17," Sabatino said. "For these reasons, the trial court's summary judgment dismissal of Amboy's third-party complaint is affirmed."

The court deferred the effective date of its prospective holding for 180 days "to enable possible further judicial review or responsive legislation."

Further judicial review is to come, as the Supreme Court granted certification in an Oct. 10 order.

Mark Robert Scirocco of the Law Offices of Robert A. Scirocco in Mount Olive represents Amboy Food. Scirocco was not available to comment on the certification order.

Russell Macnow in Colts Neck represents Zwierzynski, the host teen, and his parents. Macnow also was not available to comment.