Drunks hit the headlines again.

- Beachcroft Wansbroughs.
- 11 Aug 2000
- Indicative reading time: 2 minutes

Drunk and disorderly - a topical subject. How will the High Court rule on cases where an individual suffers from self-related injuries caused by excessive drinking?

Think before you drink, before you sue. Excessive drinking and its
anti-social consequences have rarely strayed from the headlines over the
last couple of months. The drunken behaviour of certain English "fans" at
Euro 2000 was news enough in itself but found new life when the
government's anti-drunks "on-the-spot" cashpoint fines proposal backfired
on the Prime Minister on a political and a personal level.

Even if the politicians are confused about how to tackle drunken
behaviour, can we at least be confident that the law is clear about how to
treat alcohol-related claims? We would all expect the law to make
individuals liable for injuries they cause others through their excessive
drinking, but what is the law's attitude to "self-inflicted" injury caused
by drinking?

Last month the Court of Appeal decided that the Ministry of Defence owed a
duty of care to supervise soldiers who were being transported in the back
of an army lorry after an "off duty" night on the town. The Court found
the MOD 25% liable for the injury to a soldier who had been drinking and
who fell from the roof of the moving lorry (Jebson v MOD). This overturned
the first instance judge's decision that the MOD had no such duty of
care.

This is not a "one-off" decision which can be discounted because of its
military context. Insurance professionals, including brokers, may be
interested in recent Civvy Street cases which demonstrate that in certain
circumstances third parties can be partly liable for an individual
injuring himself after drinking.

Two well publicised cases involved injuries to holidaymakers at "unlimited
free drinks" evenings organised by travel companies. In Brannan v Airtours
Plc (18.01.99). Mr Brannan was injured in the face by an overhead fan when
he ignored warnings and climbed on to the table he was sitting at.

The Court of Appeal considered that Mr Brannan's conduct was foreseeable
given the availability of drink and the fact that the only way to leave
the table was either to get everyone else to stand up or to climb over it.
Liability was split equally between Mr Brannan and Airtours.

In the second case, settled in January of this year, Mr Cox broke his neck
diving into a swimming pool after an evening of drinking at Airtours'
expense (Cox v Airtours Plc). The claim made was settled without the
travel company admitting liability and therefore without findings being
made about many disputed facts, such as the provision of "No Diving"
signs.

Taking one step down the liability chain, a High Court judge decided in
May that a driver who injured himself in a road accident caused by his own
drinking owed no duty of care to a third party who suffered psychiatric
injury as a result of witnessing the aftermath of the accident (Greatorex
v Greatorex & Others).

The circumstances of the Greatorex case were exceptional. The claimant was
the driver's father who came to the scene of the road accident in his
capacity as a fire officer. It is clear that the father's claim failed
partly because the court wanted to dissuade further copycat "intra-family"
litigation.

So when it comes to claims involving alcohol-related injuries, there seem
to be few hard and fast rules.

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