Beer vendor liable for drunk driver

[RawAlex]

Jim, the sad part is there was no reason for the bar to go out of business - they didn't put him on the bike, and they didn't drive him into the phone pole. I am sorry when anyone gets hurt, but dammit, we have to be responsible for our own actions. The desire to always find someone to blame has always really bothered me.

Another true story. In new york, at a car rental company, a guy rents a lincoln town car for 24 hour rental "for a wedding". Instead, he uses it as a Gypsy taxi (basically cruising bus stops and giving people rides for about the same price as bus fare in many cases). While doing this, with 5 people in the car, he ran a red light and was hit by an 18 wheeler on the passanger side, which killed 3 of the occupants, and injured everyone else.

This guy has no money, no insurance, misrepresented himself to the rental companies and to the public, boke the law three ways from tuesday.... so you can guess what happens:

The car rental company gets taken to court. The truck driver had no money. The taxi driver had no money, but the rental company had deep pockets - and ended up paying a huge settlement because "if they hadn't rented the car, none of this would have happened".

It's stunning to see how far the courts are willing to go to find someone with money to pay for stupid people.

Alex

[Useless]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Jim, the sad part is there was no reason for the bar to go out of business - they didn't put him on the bike, and they didn't drive him into the phone pole. I am sorry when anyone gets hurt, but dammit, we have to be responsible for our own actions. The desire to always find someone to blame has always really bothered me.

We can all understand the importance of people being personally responsible, but those who are intoxicated no longer have proper judgement, that's why the fault inevitably falls on those who gained from the person becoming drunk. It's all about foreseeability. If they couldn't have foreseen the outcome, the wouldn't have been liable.

[LowryBigwood]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

We can all understand the importance of people being personally responsible, but those who are intoxicated no longer have proper judgement, that's why the fault inevitably falls on those who gained from the person becoming drunk. It's all about foreseeability. If they couldn't have foreseen the outcome, the wouldn't have been liable.

They should cut off the alcohol before becoming intoxicated, but will they?

Why don't the courts just sue the beer companies that make alcohol, since they are ultimately responsible for people getting drunk. |duff|