But of course, here is another perfect example of society shifting responsibility to someone else. Hey, why should we take the blame for this? Our daughter didn’t do anything here? She was held against her own will and forced to drink alcohol! Now I’m going to sue! Hey Meyer family, why stop at the host of the party? Why don’t you sue the local authorities for not doing their job and breaking up the party? You should also sue the liquor store for selling it; regardless if they sold it to someone over 21. I mean c’mon, your daughter was not responsible for intoxicating herself. I’m pretty sure she was held at gunpoint and forced to drink. I’m sorry you lost your daughter (I have two teenage daughters) but you should have known where your daughter was going. Stop blaming others and take some responsibility for your own actions.
LOL DC you have two teenage daughters and you’d still expect an honest answer from your daughter when you ask that question? I coulda sworn you were trying to point out someone else’s naivete…
You can point the blame finger at anyone– the alcohol manufacturers, the distributors, the retailers, the providers, grain farmers for growing the grain, glass manufacturers for making the bottles, advertisers for pushing the product.
Or you could do the right thing and *blame at the intoxicated driver*.
If they want to know why their daughter is gone, look no further than the guy that chose to drive drunk with her in the car. Sue him. If they didn’t drink at this party, they would have somewhere else.
This suit is like blaming the moon for your sunburn.
You are right matt. The responsibility for this accident begins and ends with the idiot who chose to drive while drunk. This lawsuit is simply seeking more money.
I must point out that when MADD counts up “innocent” victims of drunk drivers, this girl will be chalked up as an “innocent victim” to feather MADD and NHTSA DD statistics.
She is hardly an innocent victim. She was drinking, willingly got into a car with a driver that was drinking and died in a crash.
Single vehicle accidents killing drinking drivers and their passengers make up the majority (over 90%) of MADD’s inflated DD statistics. Take out the non-innocent numbers and the illegal immigrant numbers and drunk driving laws a much to do about nothing.
Unless of course you are MADD profitting from each of the 1.8m annual arrestees in the US. An 18 BILLION DOLLAR A YEAR economy.
Are we sure the girl was even drinking? Yes it states that minors at the party were drinking and the driver of the vehicle was drinking but when did we find out she was drinking?
The article does not say whether or not she was drinking, but that still does not excuse getting into a vehicle operated by someone who was. In fact it makes her more responsible for her own actions, as she was competent to make the decision not to ride with an intoxicated driver. Even better, if she was in fact sober, she could have driven the both of them home and neither would be dead now.
All very good points. We should all put a mandatory commercial on TV that everyone has to watch. Don’t blame others, blame yourself first. Hopefully the courts will see that also. In regards to everyone saying minors, were they under 18, or just 21? If between 18 and 21, if this state is 21, then they are adults and responsible for their own actions. Now if they are under 18, then as a society, we chose that age for adulthood, therefore, contributing to someone under the age of 18, should have a penalty. So if the daughter was drunk, made a bad choice to ride with a drunk driver, then both the driver and the host should be responsible. If she wasn’t served alcohol, she may not have mad the bad choice. Now if she was over 18 and under 21, then only her and the driver are to blame. I’m going to sue someone just for reading this article. lol
Oh by the way, MADD’s comment makes no scense. Why pick on an organization that bring awareness to drunk driving? Pick on your senator or congressmen for passing bailouts!
I can’t believe after reading all the comments I forgot her age, she was over 18, duh. Her family should only be able to sue the driver and that’s it, if they should be able to sue at all. I’m going to sue them for my emotional distress on reading this. They forced me!!!!!!
To satisfy my own curiousity I looked it up. The underage driver had three other boys in the car in addition to the girl who was killed. He had just been released from jail in June on an assault conviction. The accident was in August. I did not find anything indicating whether or not the girl had been drinking.
Now, let’s review…where were all of the parent’s???
Who cares where her parent’s were, she’s an adult? Where’s your parent Curious? They should have monitored you writing this before you wrote it. You little whipper snapper you!
Curious,
Did your parents always know where you were? Did you never sneak out or lie to them? Did you never drive after a few drinks or get into a car with a driver who was not totally sober?? Years from now, I bet you will be sitting around with your family and your girls will have a good laugh at your expense, pointing out how clueless you were thinking you always knew what your daughters were doing!
Excuse me Mr. Maturity, but I think that the parents of the 23 year old accused of serving minors are also being sued. Sounds like it happened on their property, and WHO is legally liable for what happens on their property? Forget the choices of some of age kids. The bottom line is what happens at your house is your responsibiilty. Right or wrong, where were the parents? I am “Curious” as well.
I can’t account for my 18 yr daughter actions, let alone know where she is all hours of the day. Mine is off to college in another town and MUST be responsible for her own choices. I have done my job with raising her. If she chooses to drink and/or get into a car with someone who chose to drink – it’s harsh but it was her decision. After all, it’s call an accident for a reason. These parents are in shock, but they don’t have a leg on to sue the owners of a home because adults left their own and were under the influence. That’s why we are called adults…hello people!
The problem with that thinking is ultimately as the homeowners they are responsible for what occurs on their property. If they allowed their children to have a big property where minors (under 21) were served, they still have some liability.
Definition, per Fundamentals of Insurance: “A defense arguing that the plaintiff consented, expressly or by implication, to relieve the defendant of the duty to protect and accepted the chance of injury from the particular risk causing the injury.”
The actual given example: “A passenger who voluntarily chooses to ride in a vehicle with an intoxicated driver has assumed any risk associated with such activity, and is barred from recovering damages from the intoxicated driver.”
I’m not sure where everyone is from who posted a comment here but in Missouri, if you host a party and someone leaves your party and had an accident because they were served too much….or just drank too much on their own….the hosts can be held liable….it’s called Liquor Liability in the insurance business. And don’t any one of you tell me that the parents who owned this home where the party was…if they were home….aren’t responsible to a certain degree.
M&M is on point. 18 year olds are not children. The age of reason is generally accepted to be around 12. If you haven’t taught your kids about the dangers of alcohol by age 14, something’s wrong. If the girl drank herself into a stupor where she didn’t know what she was doing it’s her own fault. If she didn’t drink, but got into a car with someone who did, it’s her fault. It doesn’t matter if liquor, beer, crack cocaine, weed or anything else was available. Nobody forced her to take it, or hitch a ride with someone who did. A phone call to her parents for a ride would have prevented this whole tragedy. We have to stop making excuses for teenagers doing stupid things. Foisting liability onto someone else seems to be America’s way of making it easy for them to screw up.
In response to Dread….
My point is that if the Parents who owned this home where the party took place were home….It is their responsibility to oversee the party and make sure that everyone who leaves that party is sober enough to drive home. That would apply to an adult only party as well. If you’re hosting a party….you have a responsibility to those that attend to not send them off shitfaced so they can put themselves and others on the road at risk. I’ve worked as a bartender in the past for a restaurant and the bartender has a responsibility to stop serving a patron if they feel they’vr had too much to drink and can put themselves and the restaurant at risk if proven they neglected that responsibility. I don’t deny that we Americans tend to blame others for our irresponsibilities but if this were your daughter, you’d at least like to know that someone will look out for your child’s interest in the same situation.
Just a final comment on this as I’ve reread the article. It appears that the parents provided alcohol to these kids and when I say kids, I mean under 21 years of age. I would sue the parents as well. They should have more sense than to have a party and provide alcohlo to underage kids….that’s illegal in my state of Missouri and even though I know this takes place, the FEW parents I know that have done this also take the keys from EVERYONE attending the party and when someone is ready to leave, they make sure that person is able to drive. If not they make arrangements for them. That’s what responsible parents do.
Bill,
You are a hypocrite! First you say it is illegal to provide alcohol to minors, then you say the parents who do this but then make arrangements are responsible. Can you explain the difference between “irresponsible illegal” and “responsible illegal”?
I didn’t say I CONDONE this type of action. I wouldn’t call myself a hypocrite either. I’m saying if you are the parents of a teen age child the percentages are high that at some time these kids are going to drink. I have a 23 year old married daughter who we forbid to drink. Did that stop her? Honestly NO. I have an 18 year old and she DOESN’T drink and looks down on anyone who does drink who are underage. I also have a 13 year old son and I’m hoping he’ll follow his 18 year old sisters example. I’m saying that if parents are foolish enough to allow and even provide alcohol to underage drinkers…even though it’s illegal….they should have enough sense to monitor the activity, if not things like what happened in this article occur. Bottom line it could, and should have been avoided with some precautions. I’ve even told the parents I know who allow the underage drinking that they’re inviting a lawsuit if something happens, but they continue to do what they do.
Hopefully neither yourself, myself or anyone who’s posted opinions on this site will ever experience the pain & sorrow that this young woman’s family has. Unless it hits close to home AND unless all the facts are known, it’s obviously difficult to say how one would respond to a tragedy like this. Any time a young kid dies in an accident it’s tragic. People of all ages make poor decisions in their lives form time to time and have to pay for it…unless of course they can buy their way out of it. WE all know that if you have money and can afford an excellent attorney, jail time can be reduced or avoided altogether. One still has to live with the fact that they screwed up and someone lost their life because of it. One question for all….Does anyone not truly believe that the parents who allowed this party to take place aren’t responsible to some degree?
I am sick and tired of everyone trying to blame everyone else for their own choices.
IF you time comes, it doesn’t matter how you go, you go. Trying to take the rest of society with you and/or trying to gain money does nothing to help the grief. Then you have the money and you should feel guilty spending a penny of it because you didn’t reaise your child with better discipline, not to get in the car with a drunk driver, not to go to the party and drink, NOT to be able to call you for a ride……think about it….!!
I totally agree. It’s not fair to sue the family just because she was at their house. I’m sure she drinks often and at a lot of different places and she should’ve known to not drink since she was underage. I have a daughter myself and I hope to teach her to make better choices but can’t blame others for her shortcomings.
You can’t even put the full blame on the driver because she knew he was drunk and was to intoxicated herself to make a smart decision and not ride with him. So if he would have died and not her should she be sued for allowing him to drive drunk? It’s crazy how people can place blame on others just to make their child out to be the angel. Get real. I’m sure she was drinking every weekend at a number of different places and have driven with drunken friends plenty of times. It just caught up to her.
In defense of Curious, I doubt he means that we should know where our children are all the time. He is trying to show how it is unfair to blame the host of the party for not knowing every action of every guest. So the parents should sue themselves first for knowing exactly what the host knew, nothing. She was old enough to know right from wrong and should have made a better choice.
I think we ALL should sue the family of the girl, for trying to get money, for them not raising their daughter well and letting her out to go to the party and not using better judgement themselves. Good Idea!!!
You’ve all made some good points. I only know what I know based on the information from the original news article and anything else would be assumptions. What we know is that the parents who hosted this party were providing alcohol to underage drinkers. This is illegal and even though we all know it happens, I would “assume” that some parents who’ve hosted parties like this are more careful regarding all aspects of hosting such an event. What we don’t know is if this girl who died did this a lot or maybe it was her first time drinking. Doctors will confirm that teenagers still don’t have the reasoning capacity of adults so they need some help with these decisions. If this were my child, I would be devastated and would want some details from the events of the evening and whether all who have posted comments agree with me or not, the parents who hosted this party bear a legal responsibility, along with the driver AND the young girl who died.
But of course, here is another perfect example of society shifting responsibility to someone else. Hey, why should we take the blame for this? Our daughter didn’t do anything here? She was held against her own will and forced to drink alcohol! Now I’m going to sue! Hey Meyer family, why stop at the host of the party? Why don’t you sue the local authorities for not doing their job and breaking up the party? You should also sue the liquor store for selling it; regardless if they sold it to someone over 21. I mean c’mon, your daughter was not responsible for intoxicating herself. I’m pretty sure she was held at gunpoint and forced to drink. I’m sorry you lost your daughter (I have two teenage daughters) but you should have known where your daughter was going. Stop blaming others and take some responsibility for your own actions.
LOL DC you have two teenage daughters and you’d still expect an honest answer from your daughter when you ask that question? I coulda sworn you were trying to point out someone else’s naivete…
The daughter was a passenger, not the driver.
You can point the blame finger at anyone– the alcohol manufacturers, the distributors, the retailers, the providers, grain farmers for growing the grain, glass manufacturers for making the bottles, advertisers for pushing the product.
Or you could do the right thing and *blame at the intoxicated driver*.
If they want to know why their daughter is gone, look no further than the guy that chose to drive drunk with her in the car. Sue him. If they didn’t drink at this party, they would have somewhere else.
This suit is like blaming the moon for your sunburn.
You are right matt. The responsibility for this accident begins and ends with the idiot who chose to drive while drunk. This lawsuit is simply seeking more money.
I must point out that when MADD counts up “innocent” victims of drunk drivers, this girl will be chalked up as an “innocent victim” to feather MADD and NHTSA DD statistics.
She is hardly an innocent victim. She was drinking, willingly got into a car with a driver that was drinking and died in a crash.
Single vehicle accidents killing drinking drivers and their passengers make up the majority (over 90%) of MADD’s inflated DD statistics. Take out the non-innocent numbers and the illegal immigrant numbers and drunk driving laws a much to do about nothing.
Unless of course you are MADD profitting from each of the 1.8m annual arrestees in the US. An 18 BILLION DOLLAR A YEAR economy.
It’s time for MADD to go away already.
Are we sure the girl was even drinking? Yes it states that minors at the party were drinking and the driver of the vehicle was drinking but when did we find out she was drinking?
The article does not say whether or not she was drinking, but that still does not excuse getting into a vehicle operated by someone who was. In fact it makes her more responsible for her own actions, as she was competent to make the decision not to ride with an intoxicated driver. Even better, if she was in fact sober, she could have driven the both of them home and neither would be dead now.
All very good points. We should all put a mandatory commercial on TV that everyone has to watch. Don’t blame others, blame yourself first. Hopefully the courts will see that also. In regards to everyone saying minors, were they under 18, or just 21? If between 18 and 21, if this state is 21, then they are adults and responsible for their own actions. Now if they are under 18, then as a society, we chose that age for adulthood, therefore, contributing to someone under the age of 18, should have a penalty. So if the daughter was drunk, made a bad choice to ride with a drunk driver, then both the driver and the host should be responsible. If she wasn’t served alcohol, she may not have mad the bad choice. Now if she was over 18 and under 21, then only her and the driver are to blame. I’m going to sue someone just for reading this article. lol
Oh by the way, MADD’s comment makes no scense. Why pick on an organization that bring awareness to drunk driving? Pick on your senator or congressmen for passing bailouts!
I can’t believe after reading all the comments I forgot her age, she was over 18, duh. Her family should only be able to sue the driver and that’s it, if they should be able to sue at all. I’m going to sue them for my emotional distress on reading this. They forced me!!!!!!
Connecticut should be banned from the union! Idiots!! We can replace them with Iraq, Puerto Rico, or even Mexico for that matter.
To satisfy my own curiousity I looked it up. The underage driver had three other boys in the car in addition to the girl who was killed. He had just been released from jail in June on an assault conviction. The accident was in August. I did not find anything indicating whether or not the girl had been drinking.
Now, let’s review…where were all of the parent’s???
Who cares where her parent’s were, she’s an adult? Where’s your parent Curious? They should have monitored you writing this before you wrote it. You little whipper snapper you!
She was not “given” alcohol. She chose to drink it. Actions have consequences and someone else is not responsible for everything you do.
Curious,
Did your parents always know where you were? Did you never sneak out or lie to them? Did you never drive after a few drinks or get into a car with a driver who was not totally sober?? Years from now, I bet you will be sitting around with your family and your girls will have a good laugh at your expense, pointing out how clueless you were thinking you always knew what your daughters were doing!
Excuse me Mr. Maturity, but I think that the parents of the 23 year old accused of serving minors are also being sued. Sounds like it happened on their property, and WHO is legally liable for what happens on their property? Forget the choices of some of age kids. The bottom line is what happens at your house is your responsibiilty. Right or wrong, where were the parents? I am “Curious” as well.
I’ll bet she got in the backseat first
I can’t account for my 18 yr daughter actions, let alone know where she is all hours of the day. Mine is off to college in another town and MUST be responsible for her own choices. I have done my job with raising her. If she chooses to drink and/or get into a car with someone who chose to drink – it’s harsh but it was her decision. After all, it’s call an accident for a reason. These parents are in shock, but they don’t have a leg on to sue the owners of a home because adults left their own and were under the influence. That’s why we are called adults…hello people!
The problem with that thinking is ultimately as the homeowners they are responsible for what occurs on their property. If they allowed their children to have a big property where minors (under 21) were served, they still have some liability.
Sorry big party on their property….
Definition, per Fundamentals of Insurance: “A defense arguing that the plaintiff consented, expressly or by implication, to relieve the defendant of the duty to protect and accepted the chance of injury from the particular risk causing the injury.”
The actual given example: “A passenger who voluntarily chooses to ride in a vehicle with an intoxicated driver has assumed any risk associated with such activity, and is barred from recovering damages from the intoxicated driver.”
I’m not sure where everyone is from who posted a comment here but in Missouri, if you host a party and someone leaves your party and had an accident because they were served too much….or just drank too much on their own….the hosts can be held liable….it’s called Liquor Liability in the insurance business. And don’t any one of you tell me that the parents who owned this home where the party was…if they were home….aren’t responsible to a certain degree.
I was just referring to the driver. Host definitely shoulda been more prudent. And it’s merely a defense strategy, not made of gold.
Check out the website, people! It’ll only cheer you up.
M&M is on point. 18 year olds are not children. The age of reason is generally accepted to be around 12. If you haven’t taught your kids about the dangers of alcohol by age 14, something’s wrong. If the girl drank herself into a stupor where she didn’t know what she was doing it’s her own fault. If she didn’t drink, but got into a car with someone who did, it’s her fault. It doesn’t matter if liquor, beer, crack cocaine, weed or anything else was available. Nobody forced her to take it, or hitch a ride with someone who did. A phone call to her parents for a ride would have prevented this whole tragedy. We have to stop making excuses for teenagers doing stupid things. Foisting liability onto someone else seems to be America’s way of making it easy for them to screw up.
In response to Dread….
My point is that if the Parents who owned this home where the party took place were home….It is their responsibility to oversee the party and make sure that everyone who leaves that party is sober enough to drive home. That would apply to an adult only party as well. If you’re hosting a party….you have a responsibility to those that attend to not send them off shitfaced so they can put themselves and others on the road at risk. I’ve worked as a bartender in the past for a restaurant and the bartender has a responsibility to stop serving a patron if they feel they’vr had too much to drink and can put themselves and the restaurant at risk if proven they neglected that responsibility. I don’t deny that we Americans tend to blame others for our irresponsibilities but if this were your daughter, you’d at least like to know that someone will look out for your child’s interest in the same situation.
Just a final comment on this as I’ve reread the article. It appears that the parents provided alcohol to these kids and when I say kids, I mean under 21 years of age. I would sue the parents as well. They should have more sense than to have a party and provide alcohlo to underage kids….that’s illegal in my state of Missouri and even though I know this takes place, the FEW parents I know that have done this also take the keys from EVERYONE attending the party and when someone is ready to leave, they make sure that person is able to drive. If not they make arrangements for them. That’s what responsible parents do.
Bill,
You are a hypocrite! First you say it is illegal to provide alcohol to minors, then you say the parents who do this but then make arrangements are responsible. Can you explain the difference between “irresponsible illegal” and “responsible illegal”?
I didn’t say I CONDONE this type of action. I wouldn’t call myself a hypocrite either. I’m saying if you are the parents of a teen age child the percentages are high that at some time these kids are going to drink. I have a 23 year old married daughter who we forbid to drink. Did that stop her? Honestly NO. I have an 18 year old and she DOESN’T drink and looks down on anyone who does drink who are underage. I also have a 13 year old son and I’m hoping he’ll follow his 18 year old sisters example. I’m saying that if parents are foolish enough to allow and even provide alcohol to underage drinkers…even though it’s illegal….they should have enough sense to monitor the activity, if not things like what happened in this article occur. Bottom line it could, and should have been avoided with some precautions. I’ve even told the parents I know who allow the underage drinking that they’re inviting a lawsuit if something happens, but they continue to do what they do.
Justify it however you want, it sounds pretty hypocritical to me Bill.
Hopefully neither yourself, myself or anyone who’s posted opinions on this site will ever experience the pain & sorrow that this young woman’s family has. Unless it hits close to home AND unless all the facts are known, it’s obviously difficult to say how one would respond to a tragedy like this. Any time a young kid dies in an accident it’s tragic. People of all ages make poor decisions in their lives form time to time and have to pay for it…unless of course they can buy their way out of it. WE all know that if you have money and can afford an excellent attorney, jail time can be reduced or avoided altogether. One still has to live with the fact that they screwed up and someone lost their life because of it. One question for all….Does anyone not truly believe that the parents who allowed this party to take place aren’t responsible to some degree?
I am sick and tired of everyone trying to blame everyone else for their own choices.
IF you time comes, it doesn’t matter how you go, you go. Trying to take the rest of society with you and/or trying to gain money does nothing to help the grief. Then you have the money and you should feel guilty spending a penny of it because you didn’t reaise your child with better discipline, not to get in the car with a drunk driver, not to go to the party and drink, NOT to be able to call you for a ride……think about it….!!
I totally agree. It’s not fair to sue the family just because she was at their house. I’m sure she drinks often and at a lot of different places and she should’ve known to not drink since she was underage. I have a daughter myself and I hope to teach her to make better choices but can’t blame others for her shortcomings.
You can’t even put the full blame on the driver because she knew he was drunk and was to intoxicated herself to make a smart decision and not ride with him. So if he would have died and not her should she be sued for allowing him to drive drunk? It’s crazy how people can place blame on others just to make their child out to be the angel. Get real. I’m sure she was drinking every weekend at a number of different places and have driven with drunken friends plenty of times. It just caught up to her.
In defense of Curious, I doubt he means that we should know where our children are all the time. He is trying to show how it is unfair to blame the host of the party for not knowing every action of every guest. So the parents should sue themselves first for knowing exactly what the host knew, nothing. She was old enough to know right from wrong and should have made a better choice.
I think we ALL should sue the family of the girl, for trying to get money, for them not raising their daughter well and letting her out to go to the party and not using better judgement themselves. Good Idea!!!
Technically no one knows if she was drinking or not. So again the home owners shouldn’t be sued.
You’ve all made some good points. I only know what I know based on the information from the original news article and anything else would be assumptions. What we know is that the parents who hosted this party were providing alcohol to underage drinkers. This is illegal and even though we all know it happens, I would “assume” that some parents who’ve hosted parties like this are more careful regarding all aspects of hosting such an event. What we don’t know is if this girl who died did this a lot or maybe it was her first time drinking. Doctors will confirm that teenagers still don’t have the reasoning capacity of adults so they need some help with these decisions. If this were my child, I would be devastated and would want some details from the events of the evening and whether all who have posted comments agree with me or not, the parents who hosted this party bear a legal responsibility, along with the driver AND the young girl who died.