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The Supreme Court in Washington state on Thursday unanimously reinstated a $14 million award to a family who sued a tavern and a bartender after one of the bar’s customers drove away from the establishment and collided with their car, leaving a 7-year-old-boy a paraplegic.

Under state law, bartenders who serve visibly intoxicated customers are liable for damages to potential victims. At question was the type of evidence needed to prove “negligent overservice.”

Most states have so-called “dram shop” laws that can make taverns or bartenders — and in some states, even social hosts — liable for damages if they serve intoxicated customers who leave the premises and harm themselves or others.

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The Washington State Supreme Court said Thursday that the only survivor of a car crash that killed six people in 2001 should not have been convicted as an accomplice to drunken driving.

Teresa Hedlund, who was seriously injured in the one-car wreck on July 21, 2001, near the SuperMall in Auburn, was convicted in 2003. She was 28 at the time of the crash.

In a 5-4 ruling released Thursday, the high court upheld an earlier ruling by the state Court of Appeals, which said state law does not allow a victim of a DUI also to be charged as an accomplice.

The Supreme Court also reversed Hedlund’s convictions for furnishing alcohol and tobacco to a minor. The high court agreed that those charges should have been tried separately and evidence allowed at the trial on the DUI charge was prejudicial to Hedlund.