The leading case on social host liability is Childs v
Desormeaux1,
where the Supreme Court of Canada considered a tragic case
involving an impaired driver and a motor vehicle collision which
left one person dead and another paralyzed. The Plaintiffs claimed
that the hosts of a party at which the impaired driver was a guest
owed them a duty of care and had failed to stop Mr. Desormeaux from
driving while intoxicated.
The Supreme Court decided the case on the issues of proximity
and foreseeability, and ultimately found that the social hosts did
not owe a duty of care to the Plaintiffs on the facts of that
case.
In particular, foresee-ability had not been established as there
had been no finding of fact that the social hosts knew or ought to
have known that their guest was too drunk to drive. With respect to
proximity, the Supreme Court found that simply holding a house
party where alcohol is served is not an invitation to participate
in highly risky activity; more
