Wichita ? In a rare gesture, the Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday urged the state Supreme Court to reverse a 19-year-old ruling and hold tavern owners responsible for serving intoxicated patrons who later kill or hurt someone in alcohol-related accidents.

Kansas is one of only eight states that do not have so-called dram shop laws that hold bars accountable for actions of drunken customers.

The Court of Appeals on Friday reluctantly overturned a 2002 ruling by a Sedgwick County district judge who had found a Wichita bar liable for serving a man who later was involved in a crash that killed two high school students.

The appellate judges unanimously said their hands were tied by a 1985 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that a liquor store couldn’t be found negligent for selling alcohol to a teenager who then injured a woman in a car accident.

That case, “Ling v. Jan’s Liquor,” was handed down a year before Kansas voters repealed a statewide ban on selling liquor by the drink.

“Finally, we respectfully suggest that (the Ling decision) is bad public policy,” the judges wrote in their ruling Friday.

The Wichita lawyer representing the mother of one of the teen victims of the 2002 crash said it was unusual for an appellate court to be that critical of a Supreme Court ruling.

“I’ve never seen it before,” said attorney Derek Casey. “I’ve seen it before where they say you need to take it up with a higher court, but they’re kind of calling them out here.”

In 1986, the year after the Ling ruling, voters in Kansas approved a measure to allow the licensing of establishments to sell liquor by the drink.

In his 2002 ruling holding the Wichita bar liable, Judge Joseph Bribiesca said Brenda Noone’s case differed from the old case because Ling sued a liquor store, not a bar.

While the appeals court said the 1985 law was outdated, the judges reluctantly overturned Bribiesca’s ruling.

Casey said he planned to file a petition asking the state Supreme Court to review his case.

“Essentially, the Ling decision gives an immunity to bartenders and bar owners that none of the rest of us have,” Casey said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ranks Kansas 10th in drinking-related deaths per mile driven. The organization said Kansas could cut such fatalities by 11 percent each year if it enforced laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to drunken patrons.