Times Advocate, 1999-12-15, Page 19edday. December 15 1999 .'
Exec
19
You have reason to celebrate!
Your hockey team won the local
tournament!
Your best friend just got
engaged!
Your entire office received a
sales bonus!
Instead of going out, you have decided to throw a party at
your house and serve alcohol. Your decision has important
legal implications.
Bars and other licensed establishments have been held
civilly liable as alcohol providers for the injuries their
intoxicated patrons suffered or caused, either on or off the
premises. Liability has been imposed even though the staff
had no actual knowledge of the patron's intox;cation, or
had not served the patron all (or even most) of the alcohol
causing his or her intoxication. Licensed establishments
have been held accountable when they served alcohol to a
ORA who they knew or ought to have known was
intoxicated.
Unfortunately, the legislation and the cases do not
provide a definition of intoxication for civil liability
purposes. Some courts appear to equate intoxication with
a minimum blood alcohol level of .08% - the level at
which it becomes a criminal offence to drive. However,
licensed establishments have not been held liable as
providers simply because they served a patron to just above the .08%.
level or because they unwittingly served an intoxicated patron a single
drink.
Almost all of the successful suits involve patrons who were served
even though they were visibly intoxicated or had already been served
very large quantities of alcohol. In most of these cases, the patron was
about double the .08% level or more. The Supreme Court of Canada
recently suggested that provider liability requires over service plus
some other risk factor, such as obvious impairment or knowledge that
the patron plans to drive.
Like licensed establishments, social hosts have been held liable for
serving intoxicated guests. You do not need to have a liquor licence or
permit to be held accountable. The courts have yet to decide whether
the principles of provider liability will be modified in social host
situations.
Professor Solomon, MADD Canada's Director of Legal Policy and
Associate Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western
Ontario, has argued that liability for serving the intoxicated should be
the same for private social hosts as it is for commercial licensed
establishments. After all, it is an offence under almost all of the
provincial liquor laws for anyone to serve or provide alcohol to a
person who is already intoxicated. The risks are identical whether the
intoxicated person drives home from a bar or from a house. Finally,
social hosts typically are in a better position to control their guests'
behaviour than licensed establishments that often have no knowledge
of, or relationship with their patrons.
Your Party
YOUR PROBLEM
You want your party to be a good time - an opportunity for you and your
guests to unwind. However, when alcohol is involved, things can get out
of hand. The risks of death and injury rise sharply with your guests' level
of intoxication. Did you know that alcohol is involved in about 42% of
fatal traffic crashes and that alcohol-related crashes are the leading killer
of Canadians under 40.
The risks are not limited to driving. A Targe percentage of pedesterian,
fire, drowning, boating and showmobile deaths involve alcohol. In fact,
alcohol-related falls put more people in the hospital, for more days, than
impaired driving.
You can be held liable for these deaths and injuries on two separate
bases. First, you can be sued as a provider for serving alcohol to
intoxicated guests who later injure themselves or others. Second, if the
event is on your property or a property under your control, you may be
sued as an occupier. •
With respect to hosting events, all occupiers are required to take
reasonable steps to prevent injuries from occurring on their property.
Your liabilityas an occupier is separate from your liability as a provider.
Therefore, u can incur liability as an occupier even if you do not serve
a single drop of alcohol.Simply allowing alochol-related events on your
property gives rise to some legal responsibility.
MADO
CANADA
Sponsored by Huron Bruce Chapter of MADD 357-4552
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