Failure to monitor drunken patron
A tavern may be liable for negligence if it makes no
effort to keep a visibly drunk patron safe, even
though his drinking may have been done elsewhere. In
a case of first impression, the Appellate Division
held in Bauer v. Nesbitt, decided March 20, 2008,
that a bar owner can be sued for failing to prevent a
patron from getting into a car with another patron
who was visibly intoxicated and later caused the
passenger's death. The court held that if the bar's
employees should have recognized that the passenger
was drunk, even if he was not served alcohol there
(the passenger only drank a Coke at the bar), there
was a duty to protect him from foreseeable injury as
the result of an automobile accident by insuring he
did not drive and that he did not ride as a passenger
with a patron who was similarly impaired. This is the
first decision holding that if a patron becomes
visibly intoxicated and the bar's employees know or
should have known, the patron should not be permitted
to leave without trying to find safe transportation.
