Man drinks at parents house, gets into an accident with me, can I sue his parents home owners insurance for serving him alcohol?
Question Details: Person consumed alcohol at parents house and hit us in an auto accident. He was driving his father's car. They had auto insurance, but it was only 30K limit. My family's medical bills are well over 150K. I've conducted an asset search on his parents, they basically have nothing, and what they do have is protected by AZ law. I want to know if I can sue the parent's home owner's insurance policy since the son consumed alcohol on at their house before the accident? I have police reports to substantiate this claim.
Highly unlikely that you could sue them, assuming the man was of drinking age. The law does not generally impose obligations on others to be "their brother's keeper"--or their son's--and make sure that adults do not do stupid or dangerous things. In a few cases, bar owners have been found liable for what drunken patrons do, but those are bars--commercial establishments possesing a valuable license (liquor license) bestowed by the state. Similarly, sometimes a parent of an underage child is held liable if they give or their child otherwise consumes alchohal at their home--but there, there is a special duty owing to it being a minor child. I am not aware of any cases of liablity for one adult, even a parent, for the actions of another adult after consuming alchohal at their home.
