Question

Donald and Gloria Bowden hosted a cookout at their home in South Carolina, inviting mostly business acquaintances. Justin Parks, who was nineteen years old, attended the party. Alcoholic beverages were available to all of the guests, even those who, like Parks, were between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. Parks consumed alcohol at the party and left with other guests. One of these guests detained Parks at the guest’s home to give Parks time to “sober up.” Parks then drove himself from this guest’s home and was killed in a one-car accident. At the time of death, he had a blood alcohol content of 0.291 percent, which exceeded the state’s limit for driving a motor vehicle. Linda Marcum, Parks’s mother, filed a suit in a South Carolina state court against the Bowdens and others, alleging that they were negligent.

Question: The second group will formulate arguments against holding the social hosts liable based on principles in this chapter.

Answer 1

Park was not in permissable age of drinking alcohol in any place. Being the host Donald and Gloria should keep this thing in mind which person should drink alcohol and which should not. Being in the adolescent age the decision making power of Park was not mature, he could not have taken a proper decision for himself so being a host it was the duty and responsibility to make park understandable. They first breach the law by serving alcohol to a teenager. Second one is they let Park drove his car, the acohol level in his blood was above the permissable level so no matter what happened, the host should not have let park drove the vehicle. From these points we can conclude that host are not responsible and they did not make their role as host properly.They can be charged for negligent of their duty.