PROVIDENCE — One of the hosts kept pouring potent drinks containing Cabo Wabo tequila, according to the lawsuit, and he urged his guest to keep drinking, saying: “You’re Irish. You can do better than that.”

So when the night ended badly, with her intoxicated boyfriend crashing his pickup truck, resulting in the amputation of her left leg below the knee, Elizabeth F. Willis sued the hosts.

But the state Supreme Court has backed a trial judge’s dismissal of the suit, saying Rhode Island doesn’t hold social hosts liable for drunken-driving casualties except in certain cases — such as when hosts allow underage drinking.

“Although we are sympathetic to [Willis] and to some of the public-policy issues that she addresses, we decline the invitation to overturn our well-settled precedent,” Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg wrote in the July 9 opinion. “Whether an injured party should be able to maintain a cause of action arising from social-host liability rests with the legislature, not the court.”

Goldberg explained that the Supreme Court has consistently refused to hold a social host responsible for injuries suffered by an intoxicated guest who was drinking at the host’s home — except when there’s a “special relationship.”

The high court spelled out the elements of a “special relationship” in a 2005 case, in which the plaintiff was a guest at a high school graduation party that included a keg of beer and underage partygoers. During a drunken brawl, a party-crasher wielding a baseball bat smacked the guest in the head. And in that case, the court said the host did have a duty to protect the guest from harm.

But no such duty existed in Willis’ case. “Although supplying underage people with alcohol at a high school graduation party may trigger a special relationship, serving alcohol to an adult guest does not,” Goldberg wrote.

In August 2002, Willis, then 22, of Lincoln, and her boyfriend — Steven N. Grise, then 24, of Lincoln — embarked on what the Supreme Court called “a Friday night of drinking, mixed with drunk driving.”

The night began at Grise’s apartment with a kamikaze — a cocktail consisting of triple sec, vodka and lime juice. They then drove in Grise’s pickup truck to meet Grise’s uncle and aunt — Maurice and Barbara Omar — at a pizza restaurant in Smithfield. At the restaurant, Grise and Willis each drank two margaritas along with their pizza.

After dinner, the Omars invited them back to their home in Lincoln, where Maurice Omar produced two pitchers of Long Island iced tea — a concoction of vodka, tequila, rum, gin and crème de menthe. “He fortified the beverages with Cabo Wabo tequila and began pouring,” Goldberg wrote, explaining that Cabo Wabo “was described as a high-proof alcohol that Maurice recently had purchased in Mexico for $130.”

“The record before us disclosed that [the Omars] served these drinks to [Willis] and Grise ‘non-stop’ for more than three hours,” Goldberg wrote. “[Willis] contends that Maurice encouraged her to continue drinking, telling her: ‘You’re Irish. You can do better than that.’  ”

The amount that Grise drank is disputed. At the hospital, Willis told the police that she and Grise only “had a couple of drinks” and that Grise poured the Cabo Wabo. But Willis later said she had eight drinks at the Omars’ house. She said she was “blurry eyed” and Grise was staggering when they left the Omars, according to the decision.

They drove less than two miles to the home of Willis’ aunt, planning to pick up Willis’ niece. But the aunt refused to let her daughter leave with Willis because she believed Willis was drunk.

So Willis and Grise drove off in the pickup. But they didn’t get far. Grise crashed the truck into a utility pole and surrounding rock on Old River Road in Lincoln, according to the decision.

According to tests conducted at Rhode Island Hospital, Willis had a blood alcohol content of .261 and Grise’s was .196. (Rhode Island’s legal limit is .08.) Willis ended up having her left leg amputated below the knee.

Grise was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol with serious bodily injury resulting, and was sentenced to serve two years at the Adult Correctional Institutions. Grise also settled a personal-injury claim by Willis for $300,000, according to the decision.

In 2003, Willis sued the Omars on behalf of herself and her daughter. She alleged negligence and civil liability for a criminal act. But Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Hurst granted summary judgment for the Omars. And Willis appealed.

The Supreme Court ruling said Willis’ lawyer acknowledged the court has never recognized social-host liability but urged the court to “create a new frontier that will better today’s society and provide a remedy for a victim” when a host’s hospitality leads to “an atmosphere of reckless drinking and driving.”

Goldberg said the court “frequently has recognized the public policy concerns surrounding drunken driving and the resulting carnage on our highways.” But, “It is not the function of this court to act as a super legislative body and rewrite or amend statutes already enacted by the General Assembly,” she wrote, quoting a prior opinion.

Willis also claimed that the Omars had civil liability for aiding and abetting a criminal act. But, Goldberg wrote, “The record before us is devoid of evidence that demonstrates any intent by the Omars to commit a crime. Thus, the crime of aiding and abetting is not present. Even when viewed in the light most favorable to [Willis], this was a gathering of adults in a social setting where some adults knowingly over-indulged in alcoholic beverages.”

efitzpat@projo.com