A divided Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday convenience stores may be held liable when they sell beer to an intoxicated person.

By a 5-to-4 decision, the court ruled the state should allow lawsuits that target a commercial vendor of alcohol for non-premises consumption when it sells the product to a noticeably intoxicated person and when that person is subsequently involved in an accident that kills or injures himself or others.

The ruling also held that a person who sells intoxicating beverages for off-premises consumption "has a duty to exercise reasonable care not to sell liquor to a noticeably intoxicated person."

The court's ruling involved a long-running appeal of a case filed in Custer County in 2012, two people involved in a vehicular accident with an accused drunken driver filed a lawsuit against a convenience store that apparently sold the driver the alcohol.