BOSTON (AP) – A judge has ruled that an underage drinker who admits he was drunk when he crashed his vehicle, can sue two bars that served him alcohol before the accident, which left him a paraplegic.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ralph Gants ruled earlier this month that Robert Nunez II, who was 19 at the time of the May 2002 crash, has presented enough evidence that the bars violated their legal duty not to serve an underage customer.

State law allows drunk drivers to sue the bars that served them if they showed “willful, wanton, or reckless” disregard for their intoxication. However, Gants ruled that Nunez’s case can proceed to trial because he only needs to show that serving him drinks was negligent – a lower standard of proof.

“In short, since it is a crime for a tavern to serve alcohol to an underaged adult, a tavern has a legal duty to not serve alcohol to anyone it knows or reasonably should know is under 21 years of age,” Gants wrote, according to the Boston Sunday Globe. “That duty is owed not only to any third party injured by the underaged adult but to the underaged adult himself.”

Nunez’s lawyer, Richard I. Clayman, said Gants’ ruling reflects that state law has an appropriately “paternalistic” view when it comes to underage drinkers.

However, lawyers for the two bars are critical of Gants’ ruling.

Matthew Perkins, a lawyer for Carrabba’s Italian Grill on Route 1 in Peabody, said the ruling “leaves the door open for adult, but underage, drinkers to hold the commercial establishments responsible for their own illegal actions.”

Thomas Drechsler, a lawyer for The Palace on Broadway in Saugus, said he may ask a single justice of the state Appeals Court to review Gants’ ruling.

Nunez, who had worked at Carrabba’s and knew some of the restaurant’s employees, said he drank six glasses of vodka and soda there hours before the crash. He also said he was served two more drinks at The Palace, where employees also knew him.

Nunez, a 2001 graduate of Revere High School, admits in court papers that he was driving drunk and carrying a fake ID card when his sport utility vehicle collided with another car at an intersection in Malden. His SUV rolled over, ejecting him from the vehicle.

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Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe

AP-ES-10-30-05 1319EST