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Oisterboy

My mom always argues with me that the house someone leaves from is responsible for the person after they've left if they were drinking.

So, in other words, if someone leaves our house drunk in a car, we're responsible when they crash.

How accurate is that? I mean, I know friends don't let friends drive drunk...but theres only so much "stopping" you can do to a grown, drunk man who wants to leave. I'm not going to get a beating trying to fight them away from their cars unless they are a very good friend of mine.

I think its stupid, because bars let people drive drunk home all the time. No, they're not supposed to, but they do.

It would be a different story if they were underage, but we're talking about someone who bought their own liquor, brought it to a place, drank it, and left of his own will. I ALWAYS ask people to stay, but how much can I stop someone who is fully capable of making their own (bad) decisions?

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Xenonight2

IANAL, but in terms of legal responsibility, I doubt it. They were the ones who drank, they were the ones who decided to get into the car they owned, and they were the ones who decided to drive away. It's not your responsibility to stop them from that. But, depending on the precedences of cases, it may be that you are supposed to stop someone you know is drunk from driving.

I doubt that, though, because you'd be expecting bars to be under a lot more lawsuits. But then again, there could be legal protection for bars that don't extend to households for that sort of thing.

I think there may be a level of moral responsibility, though.

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gratscorpio

To the best of my knowledge if they are underage then yes because you had to of supplied the liquor.

So basically if you supplied it aka bought a keg or mad 30 racks then yes you could be held responsible because the liquor consumed was purchased by you. On the other hand you wont get a dui or anything, far lesser charges obviously, but the person in question still gets a full dui charge.

At least in MA

Also in MA, if you own a house and go on vacation and your kids get mad drunk in your house you are held responsible (circumstances abiding obviously)

So yes, in certain circumstances. I believe it is more of an at officer discretion.


scorpio

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tiger1526

Underaged then yes, but if there over the legal age then i don't believe so, not anywhere in the us that im aware of, now that doesnt mean if your having a party and someone decides to walk down the street and a cop happens to catch him doing something illegal, that they wont be stopping by your place and having a talk with you.

it really depends on the officer, because he could very well shut the party down but as scorpio said you wouldnt be getting the dui charge or anything really major probably just a ticket/fine.

the only way i could really see you actually getting in trouble for something like this is if it was your car and he just left your party, so in other words you knew he was drunk then let him drive your car, then i could see you taking some fault for it but other then that there really is nothing they can do, i mean if there was then i dont think there would be nearly as many house parties as there are around the US.

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ZormaX

Pretty sure you would be held accountable to some extent.

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Oisterboy

I have a friend who drinks and then always wants to drive. I simply don't invite him anymore, but he still shows up sometimes. Hes an adult and swears he is sober enough to drive, even when we know hes not.

He always goes, and it always makes me uncomfortable. I'm not about to fight this guy and make him stay the night.

As I said, I just don't invite him anymore.

And thankfully, we're all of legal age now so that worry is gone at least.

We all always just walk home or crash where we are, but that one dude just can't understand that concept.

Edit: yes, we all always always always tell him not to drive. But theres only so much TELLING you can do a person before you need to elevate it. I certainly have friends who I'd beat down and fight with if they tried to drive, but I don't know this person like I know them.

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Ronin

If they are underage and you are not and you knew they where going to drive, or you saw it, etc. yes.

If they where not you might get in a good scenario face the problem of negligence, which might be alleviated when you where drunk too.

Dram shop law is familiar, but not directly relevant (ok, scratch that, some states do not require you to be a licensed bar, so it might be in NY or might not. I doubt it, because I think they have rather liberal laws).
In any other accounts the question is a case-law matter and you would have to argument your case in court. Without a law however, the state itself won't press charges, so your threat are 3rd parties.

Can you detain him and is it considerable?
Well assume you could overpower him and hold him; That would mean you would have to turn him over to the police afterwards, but it would be an option to do a citizen arrest to prevent him driving (drunk driving is a criminal offense). If you don't act you become a bystander and can be liable in quality to the full extent of the person not being liable to take up the responsibility (if minor, completely, if drunk, to the amount that the responsibility gets alleviated by drunkenness)

[Now whot dus that mean?
If he gets time and it gets reduced, you might get time.
If he gets a fine and it gets reduced, you might get a fine
(If the third party (the dudes who got injured or their property destroyed or w/e) hard-balls your case, probably they might ask for the same as he got)]

Concerning amounts: There probably isn't much or any law that could compare and probably a hand full of case law; You would probably create your own here.
That means that the judge sets what he thinks as appropriate]

Yes you are an accomplice, especially if it happens regularly and thus at least once happened in the past.

The stupid drama method:
Tell him privately that he must hand over the keys if he wants to party and that you will lock them up and if he can't deal with it, or causes you to hand them over by being threatening, you will give it to him but make damn certain you call the cops as soon as he is out of the door.
Sure to cause loads of delicious drama.

Less drama method:
Tell him, if he comes with a car, he won't get in.

The minimal drama method:
Avoid the topic and put him on the persona non grata list. Best option. Not your job to sort out his bullshit.

[This is also not an expert opinion]

If something bad happens, you have to hope that the smell won't attract a legal "shark". A threat could even come from him, because it would be his interest to motivate the court to alleviate his case, by dragging others in.

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Oisterboy

Thats pretty lame.

Thats why I only really have people over that I completely trust. Everyone is so sue happy, I can't handle that kind of stress.

If I'm going to be with a lot of people, or people I'm not familiar with, there are other places we go. My home is generally under 10 close friends who I trust to not do these things.

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