Colin Cruikshank and some friends attended an event at the Delta Hotel. Colin had several alcoholic beverages. Around 2:00 a.m. he was on his way back up to his hotel room. He was fooling around and jumped up and down inside the elevator. His jumping caused the elevator's safety devices to become operational. The elevator stopped between the 7th and 8th floors. Colin and his friends pushed various elevator buttons to get the elevator moving again. They pressed the emergency button (alarm Bell) repeatedly. After about 20 minutes there was no response. So Colin and his friends pried the elevator doors open.

The hallway floor was approximately five feet below the elevator floor and the plaintiff decided to jump down. He said that just before he jumped, the elevator doors closed and hit him on the arm. The other two witnesses said nothing about the elevator door closing; however, one of them said that when the plaintiff landed he heard him slip.

The plaintiff fell down the elevator shaft causing severe cuts to his head, leg and arm. Miraculously he lived and did not break a bone. Still conscious, Mr. Cruikshank managed to pull the fire alarm and was assisted out of the elevator shaft by hotel staff. The plaintiff spent 12 days in the hospital. Since then he has substantially recovered although he still suffers from severe scars on his leg and arm, and he is no longer able to play competitive sports to the extent the he did before the accident. Furthermore, at the time of the incident the plaintiff had a blood alcohol reading of 157 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood. To have reached that level the plaintiff must have consumed a minimum of 17.4 ounces of hard liquor or 12.2 bottles of beer. He also told hospital staff that he used marijuana.

The issue in court is whether or not the hotel staff were negligent. What is your opinion based on what you have read?

Would your opinion be any different if Colin had NOT consumed alcohol or used marijuana that night?