The risks of serving alcohol to a Minor California hotel or restaurant


Every restaurant and hotel in California is warned repeatedly of alcoholic beverage Control Department (known by many as the ABC Board) in California, with food and wine Lawyers, and the hotel and restaurant lawyers how dangerous it is their reputation and revenue responsibility to serve alcohol or alcohol to a minor. Knowledge of this risk has recently been implemented in the minds of hotel and restaurant owners in the Coachella Valley cities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Indio, Coachella and Cathedral City.

But the lesson learned in the Coachella Valley holds true also for restaurants and hotels in Long Beach, San Diego, Orange County, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Orange, Costa Mesa, Carlsbad, Santa Monica, Newport Beach Buena Park, Inland Empire area of ​​Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside and Temecula and up the coast to Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo as well.

In August two restaurants in the Coachella Valley, one in Rancho Mirage and La Quinta else had their liquor license suspended for 30 days for serving alcohol to minors. Both restaurants chose to shut down and use the time to make up.

It is bad enough if the Alcohol and Beverage Control Board catches restaurant serving alcohol to a minor, but it is unusual in these two cases is how restaurants were caught and sad what happened to the children.

In the case of Rancho Mirage restaurant, a minor died in a car accident. The La Quinta incident, minor jumps to his death from a pickup truck.

It gets even worse. In Rancho Mirage restaurant case a minor riding in a car with a friend who had also been drinking but was not minor. Both died when their vehicle hit a curb and rolled over. Both had been drinking at the restaurant. The older of the two had a blood alcohol reading 00:23. Minor had a blood alcohol reading of 0.12. The legal limit in California is 0.08.

The La Quinta restaurant incident, 19-year-old minor had dinner with his girlfriend, a twenty two year old male driver of the vehicle, the driver’s wife and two year old child.

At some point, it was reported, the driver of a pickup truck struck his wife. Minor threatened to jump from the car if the driver continues to fight with his wife. Minor kept his promise, but the truck was running between 30 to 40 miles per hour.

The La Quinta restaurant was also hit by two years of probation, which if breached, could lead to the revocation of the lobby instead of trespassing.

This litany of events is not even considering a number of civil lawsuits may be filed for these two events, the grief of families of those who died or loss two restaurants can expect to be due to inattention of their employees.

When a restaurant or hotel, offers an adult in California is usually no responsibility if the adult is later involved in a drunk driving accident. There are no actions are taken by California’s alcoholic beverage control. Not so when the restaurant or hotel, offers alcohol to intoxicated minor. Then all bets are off.


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