Taking The "Personal" Out Of Personal Responsibility
At Overlawyered, Walter Olson puts it perfectly:

Perhaps his theory will be that the nightclub had an obligation to assess how drunk the woman was, but he didn't.

Olson was writing about D.C. United's Charlie Davies, who's suing Red Bull and the owners of a Washington nightclub, claiming they're responsible for a fatal car crash that ended his hopes of joining the 2010 U.S. World Cup team. Maria Espinoza was driving, and 22-year-old Ashley Roberts was killed. Davies suffered broken bones and a lacerated bladder.

The AP story is here. An excerpt:

According to the lawsuit, Davies, Espinoza and Roberta were at the Washington club on the night of Oct. 12, 2009, for a private event hosted by Red Bull.

The lawsuit said that despite Espinoza being obviously drunk, the club continued serving her alcohol. It claims the club and company "carelessly and negligently" served drinks to drunken guests.

Espinoza later drove Davies and Roberta from the club and crashed her car on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. In March, Espinoza was sentenced to two years in prison.

I recently was invited to a party a long way away on a weekend Gregg was in Detroit. I am not a big driver. I wanted to catch a ride with someone, and it was suggested to me that I go with a certain person who, well, I've seen do a lot of serious drinking. I mentioned the person's drinking to the host (vis a vis the offer that they drive), and the host told me the person's been off the sauce for a year or so. A good thing, since that person shouldn't be on the sauce and on the highway afterward.

I ended up driving anyway because I had to work and come late to the party, but I'm for sure not going to just hop in a car with somebody who's drunk. Isn't this Thinking 101? Maybe the guy decided to take a risk -- save a few bucks on a cab. Isn't the gamble his to pay for? Shouldn't it be?