Rust v. Reyer

In Rust v. Reyer, 91 NY2d 355, 360, 693 N.E.2d 1074, 670 N.Y.S.2d 822 [1998], Reyer, a 17-year-old minor, planned a party at her home in her parents' absence and agreed to permit a high school fraternity to sell beer at the party in exchange for payment of a share of the proceeds. Reyer provided storage for the fraternity's beer kegs before the party, attempted to arrange free beer for her friends, and saw many of her under-aged guests consuming the fraternity's beer. An estimated 150 minors attended the party, and one of them became inebriated and struck the plaintiff. Although Reyer neither drank nor dispensed the beer herself, the Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of a claim against her under 11-100, noting that the beer could not have been served without her advance permission and that her plan to share in the fraternity's profits "underscored her complete complicity in the fraternity's plans to furnish beer." (Id. at 359). In the Court's words, Reyer was not an "unknowing bystander . . . an innocent dupe . . . or a passive participant who merely knew of the underage drinking and did nothing to discourage it . . . She played an indispensable role in the scheme to make the alcohol available to the underage party guests." (Id. at 361).