Throwing a party? Don’t throw away safety

As the holiday season approaches, many employers will be planning to host a holiday party for clients, customers or employees. If the function involves alcohol, the employer should take appropriate precautions to ensure that guests do not overindulge or, if they do, they are not permitted to place themselves in a position where they may be a danger to themselves or to others.

Commercial and social host liability

Courts will make a party host liable for the actions of an intoxicated guest where:

•There is a sufficiently close relationship between the host and the guest.
•There exists a duty of care between the host and the injured party.
•The resulting harm was foreseeable in the circumstances.

It is well-established in Canadian law that commercial hosts — bars, pubs, restaurants and other commercial vendors of alcohol — have an elevated duty to take steps to protect the public from the dangers associated with an intoxicated patron getting behind the wheel. This duty arises out of the commercial host’s ability to monitor and curtail consumption, combined with the responsibility to the public associated with its licence to sell alcohol at a profit.

With the 2006 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Childs v. Desormeaux, it became clear the same duties do not extend to purely social hosts such as hosts of private parties The court did, however, leave room for exceptional findings of liability against social hosts whose conduct “implicates (them) in the creation or exacerbation of the risk.” If a host actively makes it more likely a guest will become intoxicated, the host may be liable even though it is a social host.

Employer host liability

An employer does not fall directly into the category of a commercial host or social host. Canadian judges have imposed a duty of care on employers who host parties, based not on a general duty of care to protect the public, but rather on the duty of care owed by employers to their employees to take adequate steps to ensure their safety.

In Hunt (Litigation Guardian of) v. Sutton Group Incentive Realty Inc., a leading Ontario example, Linda Hunt consumed significant amounts of alcohol at her company’s annual holiday party that had an open, un-staffed bar. After she left the party, Hunt stopped by a pub and drank some more, ultimately leaving with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit. She proceeded to drive a car full of passengers into oncoming traffic, sustaining very serious injuries. She successfully sued her employer, who was found partially responsible. The court found that due to the special employer/employee relationship, Sutton Group was under a positive duty to keep Hunt safe — a duty it did not meet by simply offering her a cab ride or another way to get home.

An employer is not a commercial host. Cases like Hunt, however, make it very clear that it would be wise to act like one.

Precautions

Aside from avoiding alcohol altogether — an option some employers are choosing — here are five suggested precautions that employers can take to help protect guests and the public from harm and themselves from liability:

•Dedicate or hire servers who will monitor and control consumption and will not be afraid to cut someone off.
•Offer a variety of non-alcoholic drink choices and serve lots of food.
•Be on the lookout for conduct that indicates somebody has had too much to drink, observing guests as they enter, during the party and before they leave.
•Encourage — and, if necessary, require — intoxicated guests to give up their car keys if it appears they may attempt to drive. Designate sober drivers or arrange for taxis to take guests home. Guests could be provided with taxi chits before the party to discourage them from even bringing a car.
•If a guest gets very drunk, keep them under observation until they have sobered up or can be handed over to the care of a responsible person.

For more information see: