You Can Also Commit an Injustice by Doing Nothing

Q: If I host a party at my house and serve alcohol, what’s my responsibility for making sure no one drives home drunk, and do I have any liability if someone does drive drunk and gets in a crash?

A: Assuming this is a theoretical question, I’ll give it my best shot. If, however, you’ve hosted a party and one of your guests actually drove impaired and crashed, you’ll want to ask a competent legal team, not a traffic safety nerd. It gets complicated.

I’d like to make a distinction here between moral responsibility and legal liability. There’s no debate that impairment substantially increases the risk of a crash. In Washington half of all traffic fatalities involve an impaired driver. No other risky driving behavior comes close.

If you host an alcohol-free party, the likelihood of a guest driving impaired is vanishingly small. Once you add alcohol, you also add the possibility of impaired driving after the party, and that’s something a good host will consider.

If an impaired guest intends to drive, I’ll argue on behalf of thousands of years of philosophy and religion that, if applied here, would assert that the host has a moral responsibility to prevent harm to their guest or other road users by finding a better option than driving. Or to quote Marcus Aurelius, the second century Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, “You can also commit an injustice by doing nothing.”

However, ancient Stoic philosophy and contemporary court decisions don’t always align. And after reading many court opinions it’s apparent that the judges don’t all agree either. If we were just considering criminal law, the answer would be much simpler, so I’ll start there before looking at civil liability.

It’s a crime to serve alcohol to guests that are under 21. No surprise there. But some folks might not realize how broad this law extends. In addition to the prohibition to “sell, give, or otherwise supply liquor,” it’s also unlawful to permit anyone under 21 to consume liquor on your premises. Along with your home, that includes other buildings, land, motor vehicles and boats. If you know a minor is consuming alcohol any place that’s yours and allow it, you are, as Emperor Aurelius would say, committing an injustice by doing nothing. If a host serves alcohol to a minor and that minor sustains injuries proximately caused by that service, the host may have some civil liability.

When we’re talking about adults the rules, and the liability, change. A business is prohibited from selling alcohol to a person who appears impaired, and may have some liability if that person, due to their impairment, causes harm to someone else. But that prohibition doesn’t extend to private parties. The court in Washington held that “a social host who provides alcohol to an ‘obviously intoxicated’ guest may not be held liable for damages caused by that intoxication.” Yet, there are court opinions and law reviews suggesting there could be situations when a social host may have some liability, especially if it’s hosted by your boss.

Even if there isn’t legal liability, Washingtonians feel strongly about watching out for each other. If you lived through the 1990s you’ll remember the sober driving campaign, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.” That’s not just a slogan; nearly all of us (97 percent) in Washington would likely intervene to prevent someone from driving impaired. If you’re hosting a party, I trust you’ll commit to being part of that 97 percent that protects their guests, along with any other folks they’d encounter on the road.