An acquaintance of mine was involved in a drunk driving accident this passed weekend. Some of my friends and I are arguing over who can be held liable (none of us are lawyers)
The two parties drank heavily in one bar all night. They left and got in a cab and instructed the cab driver to bring them to their car (Darwin award nominees). They got in the car, drove, hit a parked car and one died.
The bar over-served their customers which, I believe, is a crime; but the drinkers got into a cab prior to driving. Does taking the cab erase the bar’s liability? I maintain that the bar is culpable for the crime of over-serving and indirectly culpable for the crime of manslaughter (or whatever it would be). My friend maintains that the bar is absolved of liability because the pair got into a cab before driving.
So what’s the deal? Ignoring all discussions of personal responsibility etc, is the bar liable or no? This took place in Massachusetts, if that helps.
The bar acted in a reasonable way - served alcohol to patrons, watched them get in a cab to safely get home. Overserving is a tough thing to prove - depending on how much the patrons were used to drinking, they could be shit-faced but still be acting coherent, walking, talking, etc. Assuming they weren’t passed out, puking on each other, falling down, etc, the bartender can not reasonably be expected to know they were shitfaced. (As a matter of reference, an aquaintance of mine was cited for drunk driving with a BAL of .2. The police felt he should have been dead, but was apparently still reasonably coherent - he’s also an alcoholic). The bar would most likely not be liable.
The cabbie, on the other hand, could be. Dropping off drunks at their car just seems like a really stupid thing to do; however, again if the cabbie couldn’t tell, that could be a mitigating factor.
Your acquaintance has the most responsibility for the accident and his friends death - I don’t think there’s much wiggle room in that.