Everyone entertains guests at their homes and often there are some refreshing beverages served. Some parties do get a little out of hand (even I have been to them) and excessive alcohol consumption by your guests can occur. Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered their first decision in what they called social hosting, that is, home entertaining. Here are the tragic facts of this case. There was a New Year’s Eve party at a private home. The party was a BYOB party. The host provided only a small glass of champagne to each guest at midnight. One of the guests left the party at 1:30 a.m. He was drunk and drove his car right into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with another car. One of the passengers in the other car was killed and three others seriously injured. The driver had drunk 12 beers at the party over two and a half hours and blew well over 80: 225 mg per 100 ml at the time of the accident. He is now serving 10 years in jail.
A unanimous seven member panel of the court heard from the plaintiffs and the defendants but also from MADD Canada and the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The law relating to duty of care can be complicated and is often fact driven with results depending on the case. The court recognized that claims against private hosts for alcohol-related injuries to the motoring public caused by a guest constitute a new category of claim under the law. In other words, a duty of care may or may not arise depending on the facts. On the particular facts of this case, the host had no duty of care to the motoring public partly because it was a BYOB party. There were no facts in the case to prove that the host was implicated in creating a risk to the motoring public.
“It might be argued that a host who continues to serve alcohol to a visibly inebriated person knowing that he or she will be driving home has become implicated in the creation or enhancement of a risk sufficient to give rise to a prima facie duty of care to third parties . . . We need not decide that question here. Suffice it to say that hosting a party where alcohol is served, without more, does not suggest the creation or exacerbation of risk of the level required to impose a duty of care on the host to members of the public who may be affected by a guest’s conduct.”
The Supreme Court case is new. It recognizes, in principle, the duty of care of social hosting and will be applied depending on the facts. In the meantime, be careful when hosting parties.