Written by: Beck

Man drinks beer at football game. Man drives home and nails another car, paralyzing a 2-year-old. Stadium concessionaire, naturally, owes family of paralyzed little girl $105 million.

We live in a society which, rightly or wrongly, legally allows the consumption of alcohol. As a consequence, our society allows the sale of alcohol to those who wish to, you know, consume alcohol. Alcohol causes mental and physical impairment. As such, when one chooses to consume alcohol, he does so knowing he will incur a measure of impairment.

So how is it, exactly, that the stadium is somehow responsible for this shitstain's traffic accident? It is not reasonable to expect a concession stand operator--or his employees--to successfully identify people who "need to be cut off." In fact, I don't even think it's possible to identify the "we're cutting you off" line. It's purely subjective. Especially considering that the seller has no way of knowing whether or not the purchaser will be driving in the immediate future (the only specific act that most people really seem to care about).

At this point, I'd make the case for tort reform, but frankly, the argument makes itself without any help from me.

Jury Verdict Research, a Pennsylvania firm that analyzes trends in personal injury lawsuits, said at the time that the award was the largest alcohol liability award in the United States in at least the last 25 years.

Aramark's portion of that award included $30 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages. Interest accruing daily has brought the company's total to nearly $110 million, according to Mazie.

I'll grant that the eye-for-an-eye concept--which dates back to Hammurabi--has a lot of short falls. Nonetheless, I bet there'd be a lot fewer drunk drivers on the road if, instead of making a concession stand operator cough up $110 million (which really only punishes people who want to buy a hot dog and wonder why it costs $6.50) the judge ruled that the drunk driver's spine was to be broken, leaving HIM paralyzed for the rest of his life as well.

Cross Posted to the Blogger News Network