Liability rises
BC Court of Appeal has increased the liability a Texada Island pub bears for causing a crash that left a Powell River woman quadriplegic.
Justice Mary Newbury overturned a BC Supreme Court decision that had previously said the Texada Island Inn should pay five per cent of the damages awarded to the woman who was injured in a car crash on Texada on November 29, 2008.
Newbury and two other justices agreed that the pub’s liability should be 20 per cent. The driver of the car the woman was in was found to be 10 per cent responsible and bulk of the responsibility, 70 per cent, was placed on the driver of the vehicle which struck the woman’s car. The male driver, a Texada Island resident, had consumed 12 ounces of whiskey and no food before leaving the pub in his vehicle. He was offered a room to rent at the inn, but declined.
According to information from the Serving it Right website, the provincial program established to educate servers about serving alcoholic beverages to clients, establishments have a “duty of care imposed by the ‘law of negligence’ and the British Columbia Occupiers Liability Act. Lack of knowledge of a patron’s level of intoxication is not a defence. A licensee must conduct its business in a way that allows it to monitor its patrons’ consumption and behaviour so that the licensee knows when to suspend service and/or make arrangements to get an at-risk patron home safely.”
Police estimate the male driver’s blood alcohol level was between 0.147 and 0.167.
The owner of Texada Island Inn declined to comment on the decision, only saying that it was part of the out-of-court settlement.
~ with files from the Times Colonist
