ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Adults who host underage drinking parties can be held civilly liable for injuries caused by a drunken guest, Maryland’s highest court ruled unanimously on Tuesday in what one lawyer calls a landmark decision.
The Court of Appeals ruled in two lawsuits brought by victims of drunken driving incidents against adults who hosted parties that led to an underage guest becoming drunk.
The court based its decision on a Maryland criminal law that makes it illegal to serve alcohol to underage people outside of immediate family or a religious service.
Judge Sally D. Adkins wrote that people under 21 are less able to make responsible decisions regarding alcohol. Part of that law “carved out that specific class for special protection against adult social hosts who knowingly and willfully allow consumption of alcoholic beverages on their property.”
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8 comments:
This is pure BS, it is just "Careless" Parenting. Worked for Hillery, and no charges.
Old enough to be sent off to make life and death split second decisions on a battlefield!! But not wise enough about acholol.? This is pure commie nonsense. Old enough to die for your country but not drink? Of course this is held to the usual hostage method by the federal government. Withhold federal dollars for Highway funds should any state feel the need to shrug off the chains of federal blackmail.
We had drinking at eighteen in Maryland once. It did not work out well.
Having young people wait until 21 should be celebrated. It gives support to young people who don't want to drink. It helps a great many to behave responsibly. Responsible young people can refuse saying I am going to abide by the law. Obviously responsible adults support this age limit and their young. It is the irresponsible who do not. drinking is after all nothing but drug use. It causes people misery every day.
As to old enough to die for their county but not old enough to drink. A better rule would be not to send anybody to war until they have a spouse and the children they want. Another: nobody can go to war until they are old enough to serve in political positions like run for president.
One more thing about this is that I have known people who enlisted and instead of dying for their county they died right here at home for their drink. We all make choices. Some of us not very good ones.
Oh I agree war is horrible but if they're able to send an 18 year old onto a battlefield to kill someone with a rifle. I fail to understand the Dilemma of allowing them to drink alcohol? Of course your liberal view of the situation assumes that everyone is a drunkard, useless piece of crap that won't amount to anything. Hey it's a roll of the dice? Right? Everyone gets the same brush stroke all drinkers are "useless". it's about being of legal age for almost everything else? I am smart enough to vote? Kill commies for mommies, drive 2 ton death machines, buy cigs? But somehow MD state needs to dictate to me that I will go to a war!! But I cant drink?
When I was 18-20 we would drink at my friend's house. He lived with his mom and she allowed it. We were unsupervised but no one ever got dangerously drunk. Anyone who needed to stay the night could. No girls were EVER taken advantage of. I credit his mother with keeping me out and my friends out of a lot of trouble because we still would have been drinking but probably would have ended up with DUIs and situations of alcohol poisoning like others who were my age. Limit should be 18 and what goes on under your own roof or private property with parents permission isn't the government's business.
705 why not drink at your house when you were under age? Yup, thought so.
Bottom line is your drink to get laid. Everything else is bs. Kids don't need booze to have fun
Oh I agree war is horrible but if they're able to send an 18 year old onto a battlefield to kill someone with a rifle. I fail to understand the Dilemma of allowing them to drink alcohol? Of course your liberal view of the situation assumes that everyone is a drunkard, useless piece of crap that won't amount to anything. Hey it's a roll of the dice? Right? Everyone gets the same brush stroke all drinkers are "useless". it's about being of legal age for almost everything else? I am smart enough to vote? Kill commies for mommies, drive 2 ton death machines, buy cigs? But somehow MD state needs to dictate to me that I will go to a war!! But I cant drink?
July 6, 2016 at 5:32 PM
Sobriety and temperance is not a liberal view. It is a social conservative view. Just the same there are conservative and liberal abusers. Politics has little to do with it. Drunks come in all favors.
I am not sure you are smart enough to vote. This was another change that came about after Vietnam. It was thought a person serving should be allowed to vote. I suppose that is harmless enough. Tobacco products should be 21 too instead of eighteen. We are talking about drug use here and when it should be legal in our society. That is all.
Not everybody is going to drink to excess but many many will and do. You see them falling down drunk in the street all the time. A person I have known for over five years and just saw again tonight is in the final stages of destroying his life unless he can get sober.
We live in a time when alcohol has become more acceptable and appears to be used to excess by more people. It is not a good thing.
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