Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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“An American Indian tribe sued some of the world’s largest beer makers today, claiming they knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.” The Oglala Sioux tribe is asking for $500 million. [AP; Lincoln Journal-Star; Don Surber] More: Jacob Sullum, Ted Frank.
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“A New Jersey man who got so drunk playing beer pong at a Greenwich Village pub that he thought walking across a busy highway was a good idea cannot sue the bar over his injuries, a judge has ruled.” [Dareh Gregorian, NY Post]
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“D.C. United’s Charlie Davies is suing the owners of a Washington nightclub and the drink company Red Bull for $20 million, claiming they are responsible for a fatal car crash that ended the MLS player’s hopes of joining the 2010 U.S. World Cup team. Davies, now 25, was a passenger in the car driven by a woman who has since pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving in the 2009 one-car crash that killed a second passenger.” Perhaps his theory will be that the nightclub had an obligation to assess how drunk the woman was, but he didn’t. [AP/ESPN]
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“Jeffrey McCave was sentenced in a county court to thirty days in jail, two years of probation and a $1000 fine for listening to music in an undriven car parked on his father’s driveway while drunk. The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday used the case to clarify that the charge of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) does not apply in a personal driveway.” [The Newspaper]
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“A whistle-blower tells how a private detective arranged for men to be arrested for drunk driving at the behest of their ex-wives and their lawyers — and that entrapment using decoys was only one of many alleged misdeeds.” [L.A. Times; Contra Costa County (Bay Area), Calif.]
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Settling a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, the maker of the drink agrees to warn on its label that it really has quite a lot of alcohol in it and can get you tipsy without having to go back often for refills. As Elie Mystal notes, the “warning” might fit rather nicely into the beverage’s marketing strategy. Scott Greenfield has thought of a parallel case.
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A victory for California consumers and producers in search of artisanal tippling. [San Francisco Chronicle, last year]
And community is undermined as a result, argues Thom Lambert at Truth on the Market.
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Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc., an interstate trucking company, doesn’t want to put drivers with a history of drinking problems behind the wheel, and has accordingly been sued by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), under which alcoholism is considered a protected condition. I’ve got details in a new post at Cato at Liberty (& Bader/CEI, Lachlan Markay/Heritage, Fox News).
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Alcohol interlocks and our dystopian driving future [Rick Berman, Daily Caller; earlier here, here, etc.]
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At least when enforced, they send dubious signals to revelers [Scott Greenfield]
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Better lock ‘em up? A Florida appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit against the city of Boca Raton over its police department’s decision to release from police custody a highly intoxicated 24-year-old, Christopher Milanese, who then walked onto railroad tracks and was fatally struck by a train. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel; opinion courtesy Leagle]
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They could drive you to drink — especially if you’re not politically well-connected [Coyote]
Ontario: “A judge has reopened a major legal controversy by ruling that accused people can claim they were too drunk to be found culpable of committing crimes.” [Globe & Mail]
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A moratorium on new liquor licenses in Washington, D.C.’s popular Adams-Morgan neighborhood might account for why an existing license appears curiously valuable. [Matthew Yglesias]
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Individual liberty, free markets, and peace: the world's premier libertarian think tank. Publishes Cato at Liberty, where I blog on contemporary policy issues.