Do you think that Dispensaries Ltd. the company that Gillian and Shelley

work for and who hosted the event at Stage West has any liabilities in this case ?why or why not?(Based in Canadian law)

On December 8, 1985, Gillian Stewart, her husband, Keith Stewart, her brother, Stu

Pettie and his wife, Shelley Pettie went to Stage West a dinner theatre in Edmonton,

Alberta for a dinner and live performance. Before the evening was finished, tragedy

struck; after leaving Stage West at the end of the performance, the group was involved

in a minor single-vehicle accident that left Gillian Stewart a quadriplegic.

Gillian Stewart and her sister-in-law, Shelley Pettie, were both employees of

Dispensaries Ltd. For its 1985 Christmas party, Dispensaries Ltd. paid the price of

admission for its employees and their spouses and friends to attend a performance at

Stage West, a dinner theatre in Edmonton. The admission price included dinner and

the performance it did not include alcohol.

The two sisters-in-law, together with their husbands, went to the theatre together in Stu

Pettie's car. Stu Pettie was driving. They arrived at the theatre at around 6 p.m. and

were seated by a host at a table selected from a group of tables that had been set

aside for the 60 guests of Dispensaries Ltd.

The dinner theatre was organized with a full bu

ff

et dinner and was to be followed, at

7:45 p.m., by a three-act play. Cocktail servers provided table service of alcohol. The

Stewart-Pettie table was served by the same person all night. The cocktail servers took

drink orders during dinner, before the play started and during the two intermissions. No

orders were taken while the play was in progress. At the end of the night, a running

total (a bill) of all alcohol ordered and consumed was presented for payment to the

Stewart-Pettie group.

Stu Pettie and Keith Stewart each ordered several drinks over the course of the

evening they started with drinks before dinner and went on to order drinks after

dinner (but before the first act) and during each of the two intermissions. The wives had

no alcohol. The wives were present at the table during the entire course of the evening

while the drinks were ordered, served and consumed. Later, Gillian Stewart's

testimony demonstrated that she was aware, at least in general terms, of the amount

that Stu Pettie had to drink during the evening.

Stu Pettie was drinking "double" rum-and-Cokes. Later, the trial judge found that he

had consumed five to seven of these drinks the equivalent of 10 to 14 ounces of

liquor. The trial judge also found that despite the amount he had to drink, Stu Pettie

showed no signs of intoxication. This was deceiving he was intoxicated by the end

of the evening.

The group left the dinner theatre around 11 p.m. Once out in the parking lot, they

talked amongst themselves about whether or not Stu Pettie was fit to drive, given that

he had been drinking. Neither his wife (Shelley), nor his sister (Gillian) who

acknowledged that she knew what her brother was like when he was drinking had

any concerns about letting Stu Pettie drive. So all four people got into the car and started on their way home with Stu Pettie driving, Keith Stewart in the front

passenger seat and their spouses, Shelley and Gillian (respectively) in the back seat.

There had been a frost that night that had made the roads unusually slippery. The trial

judge found that Stu Pettie was driving slower than the speed limit (50 km/hour in a 60

km/hour zone) and the judge also accepted the evidence that Gillian said he was

driving properly, safely and cautiously.

Still, despite exercising caution, Stu Pettie lost momentary control of the vehicle and

the car swerved to the right, hopped a curb and struck a light pole and noise

abatement (which ran alongside the road). Three of four people in the vehicle su

ff

ered

no serious injuries. Gillian Stewart, however, was not wearing a seat belt and was

thrown across the car where she struck her head and was rendered quadriplegic.

An expert at trial provided testimony that IF Gillian had been wearing a seat belt

which, it should be noted, was not required by law in Alberta at that time her injuries

would have been prevented.

About an hour after the accident, Stu Pettie registered a blood alcohol reading of .19

and .20. The trial judge found that although it was not clear what his blood alcohol

content would have been at the time of the accident with blood alcohol readings

done an hour after the incident producing .19 and .20, he was, without a doubt,

intoxicated and it was safe to assume that his blood alcohol content at the time of the

accident would have been over .10.