Is there a legal precedent for a lawsuit against a drug dealer for health damages caused by illegal drugs?
By suing the drug dealer your illegal consumption of the drug would also be revealed, making the action a double-edged sword. The dealer goes to jail, and you are sent to rehab. :dubious:
A tort action based on a criminal act is called a Derivative tort.
Of course no express cause of action exists by a violation of statute if a user is harmed, but one may be “implied” by the Courts.
On a state level, I don’t know any case law on implied COA’s, but federally from violations of federal criminal law, it is Cort v. Ash, I remember that.
The user may share culpability though, assumption of risk, etc.
Apparently, 17 States have adopted some version of the Model Drug Dealer Liability Act. The DDLA Judgments link on that page cites three cases that were apparently successfull against drug dealers under the act.
Never heard of that either, thanks for the info, good source.
I don’t know who put that site up but they really like the term ‘drug babies.’
Drug babies. Kinda like sugar babies. Only drugs.
Don’t most states hold that you can’t recover for your own illegal acts? I’m trying to remember a case from Virginia in the 1990s (yes, 19-90s) where a woman sued a man for giving her herpes and the court ruled that she couldn’t recover because she was engaging in a crime: fornication.
I’m not a lawyer, but even I have heard of the legal doctrine of clean hands – that a person coming to court to enforce a legal contract must not have engaged in illegal actions themself – that is, they must have ‘clean hands’.
So presumably anyone buying from a drug dealer was doing an illegal purchase contract, and thus can’t sue in court about ‘unsafe goods’ sold to them.
It may not have to be the actual user that does the suing, what about the parents of a minor child that get harmed from taking drugs, or some similar situation, can the dealer be sued in cases like this?
Here it is:
Code § 18.2-344 provides: “Any person, not being married, who voluntarily shall have sexual intercourse with any other person, shall be guilty of fornication, punishable as a Class 4 misdemeanor.” In sustaining the demurrer, the trial court implicitly adopted defendant’s contention that the plaintiff, a participant in the unlawful act of fornication, is barred from recovering damages resulting from the act. We hold that the trial court was correct. Virginia follows the general rule that “a party who consents to and participates in an immoral or illegal act cannot recover damages from other participants for the consequence of that act.” Miller v. Bennett, 190 Va. 162, 164-65, 56 S.E.2d 217, 218 (1949) (wrongful death action against abortionist held barred when plaintiff’s decedent consented to abortion, or attempted abortion, performed in violation of Virginia’s then general anti-abortion criminal statute). The foregoing principle applies to all civil actions, whether in tort or in contract. See Levy v. Davis, 115 Va. 814, 80 S.E. 791 (1914) (seller barred from recovering possession of furniture sold to operator of house of prostitution when seller knew character of defendant’s business and that her only means of payment was from income of the enterprise); Roller v. Murray, 112 Va. 780, 72 S.E. 665 (1911) (action on illegal, champertous contract may not be maintained either to enforce it directly or to recover the value of services rendered under it). The rule mainly is premised on the idea that courts will not assist the participant in an illegal act who seeks to profit from the act’s commission. 190 Va. at 165, 56 S.E.2d at 218-19.
Zysk v. Zysk, 404 S.E.2d 721, 722 (Va. 1990)
Didn’t the actor Carroll O’Connor sue the drug dealer of his son, Hugh O’Connor? I seem to remember that the young man committed suicide and his distraught father sued the dealer who got his son hooked on cocaine, presumably. Anyone know how that ended up?
It looks like from the post above that those 17 states have modified the common law and allowed these types of suits.
Usually when a spouse or other family member sues for wrongful death that is, as lawbuff said, a derivative suit, and the family member “steps into the shoes” of the deceased. So, if the state common law, like Virginia, would bar recovery for an illegal act, the family member likewise wouldn’t recover.
I know that West Virginia wouldn’t completely bar a recovery for a Plaintiff, but would reduce it by his comparative negligence (say a jury found the drug dealer 60% at fault and the Plaintiff 40% at fault and there was $100k worth of damages. The amount would be reduced to $60k to account for the Plaintiff’s fault).
Virginia, Maryland, D.C., North Carolina, and Alabama still use contributory negligence which is very harsh. Any fault at all by the Plaintiff bars his entire recovery.
Wow, legislative buzzkill!
Only the first one and a half lines are legislative: the remainder are citations of court cases in Virginia courts.
Just recently found out my brothers oldest friend and drug dealer was with him the night he died. Not only did he supply the drugs he was also there and did nothing to save him. I’m not an idiot I know my brother took the drugs and his buddy didn’t force him. My issue is he was in the house and left him to die. The pussy ran and didn’t even call 911. He more interested in saving his own ass. He…the buddy slash dealer had killed two people in a car wreck only three months prior. This was not the first time this guy left my brother to die. A few years earlier he took him to a fire station and left him having a seizure in the car and took off. He’s a drug dealer and has a huge arrest record. Yet he walks free!!! I get to see him everytime I go to my parents house. I drive by and there he is selling drugs right in front of his mommies house! My hands are clean I’ve never bought drugs let alone spoken to him. I want him to pay and at the very least I want everyone to know what a pussy scum bag he is. I probably can’t prove he sold him the drugs but…my mom found the drug dealers mother’s per tiptop bottle in my brothers house. We know he was in the house because his ex wife called my mom and told her. I just don’t get how this scum is still free. The only thing I can think of he’s an informant for the police! Any ideas anyone?
I can’t help with the topic, but I just wanted to offer my condolences. That is a terrible situation, and I am sorry to hear you have to go through that.
What is a “per tiptop bottle”?
You might want to start a thread in IMHO about your situation rather than bumping a four year old thread. My condolences also.
Regards,
Shodan
A lot of people around here have gone to jail for buying the heroin one of their friends ended up ODing on.