Nineteen-year old University of Nevada student Ryan Piscodeparted a party, during which he had consumed a considerablequantity of Coors Light, and proceeded to drive hisgirlfriend’s car into a pole at 90 mph. The unlicensed driverwas instantly killed.
On Wednesday, his mother exacerbated a horrific tragedy byfiling negligence lawsuits against Coors, the girlfriend and thegirlfriend’s mother. Of particular interest is the claim thatCoors is liable for “glorifying a culture of youth, sex andglamour while hiding the dangers of alcohol abuse andaddiction.” Here we go again, tort reformers.
A successful negligence claim requires that the defendant had aduty of care, breached it, and caused the plaintiff damages as aresult of the breach. Duty of care is defined by the”reasonable person standard,” which compares thedefendant’s activity to the responsible actions of a prudentperson. In simple negligence cases, the defendant’s conductmust also be a substantial cause, and the plaintiff’s injurymust have been foreseeable.
Analyzing the basic principle of the case, Ed Board feels thatCoors had no duty to warn its consumers about the “dangers ofalcohol abuse” because the consumer assumes the well-knownrisks inherent to drinking.
In Texas, when this issue has faced the courts, “allconcluded that the alcoholic beverage manufacturer had no duty towarn of whatever risk or danger was asserted.”
If tried as a product liability case under marketing defectsstatutes, the rules change in the plaintiff’s favor, but EdBoard believes the outcome is identical. In this situation, Coorsis liable if it has failed in its duty to adequately warn orinstruct about unreasonable dangers.
A federal law requires Coors to place a warning on its packagingthat states, “Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs yourability to drive a car.” Since the police report notes thatrescue workers “found a Coors box in the car, and thewreckage reeked of alcohol,” Pisco likely had an opportunityto read the warning.
Ed Board concludes that Pisco is responsible for his own tragicactions. The perils of drunk driving are widely known, and it isunreasonable to claim that advertisements of scantily-clad twingirls are a cause of his accident. Stick this unfortunate case onthe pile with “Fast Food Obesity” and “Violencein Video Games.”
One closing remark: should you ever find yourself in a similarsituation, please call (214) SMU-RIDE. In this scenario, cabdrivers are much more valuable than lawyers.
