A party host can be held liable for serving alcoholic drinks to a minor who dies from alcohol poisoning, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in announcing a new rule of law for Hawaii.

State court rulings have generally held that the host of a gathering, or so-called social host, cannot be held liable for anything that happens to a drunken guest.

But in a unanimous ruling, the high court reinstated a lawsuit filed by the family of 15-year-old Makamae Ah Mook Sang, who died after attending a 2009 party hosted by Michael Clark at his Hawaii Kai home.

The court held that a host owes a duty of care to guests at parties on the host’s property.

Jonathan Ortiz, Clark’s attorney, said he still had to "digest" the ruling.

"It has far-reaching ramifications beyond the facts of this case," he said, but declined to elaborate.

The lawyer for the family of the girl could not be reached for comment.

The suit that was filed against Clark alleged that the then-25-year-old man served and encouraged Ah Mook Sang to drink large amounts of hard liquor.

The girl became ill and passed out, but Clark did not aid the teenager or call for help, the suit said.

The next morning, Clark help load the girl’s body into the car of a friend and told the driver to leave the property, according to the suit.

The girl was taken to a hospital where she was later pronounced dead from acute alcohol intoxication, the suit said.

Circuit Judge Rom Trader called the case "a tragedy of indescribable proportions," but found that the suit did not allege a basis in the law for the case to proceed.

Clark’s lawyer had pointed out that neither the high court nor the state appeals court had ever found that a host who gives alcohol to an intoxicated minor is liable for the minor’s injuries.

Trader dismissed the suit, but the 39-page opinion by Associate Justice Paula Nakayama set aside the dismissal and sent the case back to Circuit Court.

The ruling is the latest development in a line of Hawaii Supreme Court cases dealing with the liability of commercial establishments and party hosts who sell or provide liquor to drunken customers and guests.

In 1980, the Hawaii Supreme Court first adopted "dram shop liability," which holds commercial establishments — bars and liquor retailers — responsible for injuries to others caused by drunken patrons and customers.

But the court refused to say a drunken patron who suffers an injury can sue the establishment.

The court rulings refrained from holding social hosts responsible for injuries caused by their drunken guests.

The state Legislature created an exception by passing a law that allows people injured by a drunken person under 21 to sue the host who served the minor drinks.

The law, however, prohibits the minor from suing the host over the minor’s injuries.

In its ruling Tuesday, the high court said Ah Mook Sang’s family’s lawsuit does not fall under the dram shop and social hosts decisions, or the state law creating the exception.

Unlike those cases, the lawsuit does not involve a commercial enterprise and does not involve injuries to another person on the public streets, the court said.

Instead, the suit alleges the host knew Ah Mook Sang was underage, served her drinks and didn’t help when the girl became sick, the court said.

"This is a set of facts not addressed by any of our previous cases," the court said.

The court said Clark can be held liable under the theory that he owed a "duty of care" for the safety of people reasonably anticipated to be on the property.

The justices concluded that Clark "owed a legal duty to Makamae while she was on their property to protect her from harm and, failing that, to render or summon aid once harm occurred."

Clark was sentenced in 2010 to a year in jail for providing alcohol to Ah Mook Sang and four other teenage girls at the party.

Ah Mook Sang’s blood alcohol content was 0.433, more than five times the limit for drunken driving.

Clark was also fined $10,000, ordered to pay $1,850 in restitution and perform 200 hours of community service.

The jail term was to run at the same time as another one-year jail term for assaulting a security guard and a Honolulu police officer at the Ala Moana Hotel in 2007.