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I know that a bartender and the premises is liable for service of an alcoholic beverage to an obviously intoxicated person. (Califonia)
But what about if a bartender serves someone 10 shots of tequila and 5 beers in the time span of 1 hour. And, duing that hour, the patron did not show symptoms of intoxication, thus, no violation of service to an intoxicated person. After that hour was up, the customer got up and left. An hour later, the customer was found in the street passed out and taken to the hospital.
Common sense tells you that anyone who drinks that much in that short of a time span, they are obviously going to end up drunk.
Does anyone know of a section or case law that would hold the bartender or the premises liable fo the above scenario?
Nahhh. I'm not that kind of jail house lawyer. I don't know case law from a case of booze (pun intended). I can assure you, however, that if the bartender was neglectful in his duties, you can SUE. Under what law are you gonna sue? Your REAL lawyer will know.
What I know, is what you can DO about it.
Yes, it sounds as though the bar was negligent. If you can prove it, you've accomplished HALF the task. The next half, is proving damages. I don't think you've got any. What??? You've got a hospital bill? How much? $1,000??? Those aren't damages... I'm talking about DAMAGES!!!!!
If the only consequence was that the person passed out and was taken to the hospital then there's nothing to be liable for. Of course, the bartender should have known better than to serve that much in such a short time span and the person should have known better than to consume that much in that same short time span. However, if there was no real harm or injury to anyone else because of this person's actions while intoxicated, then the bartender and establishment won't be liable for anything except possibly medical bills for the hospital visit if the patron doesn't have health insurance.
Since its possible to kill someone with alcoholic poisoning by sheer volume, I don't think a trained professional bartenders is willing to risk serving such an outrageous amount. I harbor a small dose of skepticism about the OP being factually correct or even plausible for reality. Knowing about safe limits and proper handling of alcohol service is a part of their job much like food handling sanitation is for that burger flipper at McD's.
Without witnesses, receipts, hosptial bills, etc I don't think its a case and even with it, its going to be an uphill climb if the bar and the professional bartender know their stuff and did it anyway. If its true, it certainly was dangerous. Bars are often targets for lawsuits and so I would suspect they know how to avoid them. How do I know this? I accidentally dug it up researching how often AA is sued when a lawsuit showed up on my desk LOL and its even more!
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