SOBERING ADVICE
Employers may want to think twice before the eggnog flows freely at this year’s holiday party.
Quite often, courts have found employers liable for injuries experienced by guests and third parties as a result of alcohol served at work functions.
Patricia F. Weisberg, partner at Cleveland’s Walter & Haverfield LLP, says lawsuits stemming from such events often “try to get at everyone’s insurance because the employer’s insurance has bigger pockets.”
The most common example of such suits are from employee-sponsored events where the company supplies the alcohol. “If the employer is approving the conduct, they are held liable,” says Weisberg.
However, such employer approval almost went beyond company-sponsored events in one case last October. Brunswick-based Litehouse Products picked up the alcohol tab at a farewell party for an employee at a local sports bar. After a guest of the party became intoxicated and assaulted a patron at the bar, the patron filed a lawsuit for $100,000 against the company, the bar and the employee.
The courts, however, said the company did not have to pay as it was the bar’s duty not to serve a clearly intoxicated patron, says Weisberg.
The mistake the company made in this case, which almost got Litehouse in trouble, Weisberg says, was that they offered to pay the open tab for its employees.
“Limit alcohol at any company-sponsored event,” she says. Weisberg also stresses that prevention is key in making sure that alcohol-related accidents do not happen.
“If it’s a company-sponsored event and somebody else is paying for the drinks, make sure someone stays around who is sober and who makes sure everyone gets a cab or a ride home,” Weisberg advises.
(This article was reproduced by permission of Inside Business Magazine - Issue Date: December 2006, Posted On: 11/27/2006)
