Matthew Denholm & Nicola Berkovic; 11/11/09
The High Court has dramatically shifted the responsibility for drunken actions on to the individual, ruling that the nation’s publicans have no general duty of care to protect patrons from the consequences of getting drunk. Hailed as a victory for common sense, the country’s highest court yesterday tilted responsibility for the safety of drunken patrons towards “the drinker, rather than the seller of drink”. Without dissent, five judges overturned a decision of the full bench of Tasmania’s Supreme Court that found a publican who returned motorcycle keys to a drunken patron, who then died in a crash, had failed in a duty of care. Three of the judges opted to make a more detailed explanation of their decision to “avoid repetition” of such cases and to warn against “interfering paternalism”.