Court ruling says 'hosts' could be liable for drunk guests
Posted at: 05/19/2011 7:09 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
A ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court says businessmen who wined and dined a drunk driver could be sued for damages in a fatal car crash.
The case goes back to April 2005, when Alicia Gonzales drunkenly slammed her car into an SUV on I-25 near Cesar Chavez, killing 7 year old Manuel Delfino.
Gonzales told police that she had been drinking for hours at three different bars with salesmen from pharmaceutical companies who were hosting a business lunch for Gonzales and other employees from an Albuquerque doctor's office.
Manuel Delfino's mother Gina sued the salesmen and their companies, along with the three bars, but an Albuquerque judge dismissed the salesmen and their employers from the lawsuit.
Recently the state Supreme Court put them back in, ruling that they were acting as social hosts, convening the get-together, paying for it, and to some extent controlling it.
"It's all about personal responsibility," said Lora Lee Ortiz of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "We really want people to think about these things each time they're out, whether they're celebrating, whether they're supporting somebody else, whether they're whining and dining in any way, shape, or form, there has to be responsibility behind it."
The ruling does not necessarily apply to anyone who might pay for a few drinks or pick up a bar tab, but would apply to "a social host who recklessly provides alcohol to a guest.”
Gonzales admitted to drinking eight beers over a period of several hours before the crash. She blew a .21 on a blood alcohol test, well over twice the legal limit of .08. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison for drunk driving and child abuse, but is currently out on $250,000 bond while appealing the child abuse conviction.
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