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New Mexico's Dram Shop Law, §41-11-1 NMSA 1978, provides for limited liability to DWI crash victims from certain kinds of criminal or negligent behavior by a liquor seller.   Like many such laws, New Mexico's is oriented as much or more toward shielding sellers from liability as toward allowing victims compensation for the harm done them of sellers' illegal acts.  Nevertheless, the law has been successfully used to hold sellers liable for DWI crash injuries.  Note that New Mexico courts have not always upheld the dollar limitations on awards specified in Section I.

Statute text

A. No civil liability shall be predicated upon the breach of Section 60-7A-16 NMSA 1978 by a licensee, except in the case of the licensee who:

(1) sold or served alcohol to a person who was intoxicated;

(2) it was reasonably apparent to the licensee that the person buying or apparently receiving service of alcoholic beverages was intoxicated; and

(3) the licensee knew from the circumstances that the person buying or receiving service of alcoholic beverages was intoxicated.

B. No person who was sold or served alcoholic beverages while intoxicated shall be entitled to collect any damages or obtain any other relief against the licensee who sold or served the alcoholic beverages unless the licensee is determined to have acted with gross negligence and reckless disregard for the safety of the person who purchased or was served the alcoholic beverages.

C. No licensee is chargeable with knowledge of previous acts by which a person becomes intoxicated at other locations unknown to the licensee.

D. As used in this section:

(1) "licensee" means a person licensed under the provisions of the Liquor Control Act and the agents or servants of the licensee; and

(2) "intoxicated" means the impairment of a person's mental and physical faculties as a result of alcoholic beverage use so as to substantially diminish that person's ability to think and act in a manner in which an ordinary [ordinarily] prudent person, in full possession of his faculties, would think and act under like circumstances.

E. No person who has gratuitously provided alcoholic beverages to a guest in a social setting may be held liable in damages to any person for bodily injury, death or property damage arising from the intoxication of the social guest unless the alcoholic beverages were provided recklessly in disregard of the rights of others, including the social guest.

F. A licensee may be civilly liable for the negligent violation of Sections 60-7B-1 and 60-7B-1.1 NMSA 1978. The fact-finder shall consider all the circumstances of the sale in determining whether there is negligence such as the representation used to obtain the alcoholic beverage. It shall not be negligence per se to violate Sections 60-7B-1 and 60-7B-1.1 NMSA 1978.

G. A licensee shall not be held civilly liable pursuant to the provisions of Subsection F of this section except when:

(1) it is demonstrated by the preponderance of the evidence that the licensee knew, or that a reasonable person in the same circumstances would have known, that the person who received the alcoholic beverages was a minor; and

(2) licensee's violation of Section 60-7B-1 or 60-7B-1.1 NMSA 1978 was a proximate cause of the plaintiff 's injury, death or property damage.

H. No person may seek relief in a civil claim against a licensee or a social host for injury or death or damage to property which was proximately caused by the sale, service or provision of alcoholic beverages except as provided in this section.

I. Liability arising under this section shall not exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for bodily injury to or death of one person in each transaction or occurrence or, subject to that limitation for one person, one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) for bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in each transaction or occurrence, and twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) for property damage in each transaction or occurrence.