Can the wife and children of a customer who died as a result of injuries sustained in a barroom brawl maintain a wrongful death action against the owners of the tavern for furnishing intoxicating liquor to the decedent?

5 In Cole v. Rush (1955) 45 Cal.3d 345, 289 P.2d 450, it was held that the wife and children of a customer who died as the result of injuries sustained in a barroom brawl could not maintain a wrongful death action against the owners of a tavern for furnishing intoxicating liquor to the decedent. The complaint alleged that the decedent had patronized the defendants' tavern on numerous occasions, that he was well known to the defendants and that the defendants knew that the decedent " 'was normally of quiet demeanor but that when ... intoxicated he became belligerent, pugnacious, and quarrelsome.' " (Id., at p. 347, 289 P.2d 450.) The complaint further alleged that the plaintiff widow on numerous occasions had requested that the defendants not sell the decedent sufficient liquor to allow him to become intoxicated, that the defendants furnished the decedent with liquor until and after he became intoxicated and that, as a result of being intoxicated, the decedent became belligerent, engaged in a brawl, and died from injuries sustained in a fall during the fight.