Underage drinking suicide

If a minor drinks in your home and then is hurt, you may not be liable if you didn't allow or know the minor drank in your home.

Concluding, inter alia, that the plaintiff-PR failed to establish a prima facie case of negligence based on a statutory or ordinance violation, the court held that the trial court properly granted summary disposition in favor of the defendants. Plaintiff's decedent, Jonathon, died from an apparent suicide. His body was found hanging from a rafter in a basement workshop in defendants' home. The previous evening, Jonathon and defendants' son Andrew, who were both under the age of 21, were consuming alcohol during a party at defendants' home while defendants were away. Defendants returned home after midnight, discovered that a party had been held at their house and that alcohol was served and consumed without their permission, and reprimanded Andrew and the other boys who were still present. Defendants also called Jonathon's parents to inform them that he and several others had been drinking at their home without their permission. Because Jonathon was intoxicated, it was decided that he could stay at defendants' house to "sleep it off." In the morning, another boy who spent the night at defendants' house saw Jonathon get up, use the bathroom, and return to the basement where he had been sleeping. Shortly thereafter, some boys discovered Jonathon hanging from a cord in the basement. The ME listed the cause of death as suicide. Plaintiff alleged that defendants negligently allowed underage minors to consume alcohol in their home, and that Jonathon's alcohol consumption was a proximate cause of his suicide. There was "no evidence that defendants gave either written or oral permission for, or approval of, the consumption of alcohol while defendants were away from the house. Nor was there evidence of any conduct by defendants that would have caused a reasonable person to believe that defendants had given permission for, or approval of, the consumption of alcohol at their home while they were away." Plaintiff relied on evidence that defendants were aware that Andrew and his friends had consumed alcohol at their house in the past. "However, that evidence also showed that the prior alcohol consumption was not permissive and that defendants took corrective action to prevent the consumption of alcohol in their home by Andrew and his friends." Before defendants left their home on the evening of 5/30/08, there had not been any alcohol consumption by Andrew and his friends at the house since 11/07. Also, there was no evidence that defendants had any knowledge on May 30 that Andrew or his friends planned to consume any alcohol after defendants left that evening, that Andrew and his friends possessed any alcohol when defendants left the house, or that there were any plans for a gathering at which alcohol would be furnished or consumed. The evidence showed that the alcohol that was consumed that evening was furnished, without defendants' knowledge, by others who did not arrive until several hours after defendants left the house. When they returned home and discovered that a party had been held without their permission, "they became upset, began reprimanding those who were still present, began making everyone clean up, and called other parents to let them know that their children had been drinking without permission." It "was beyond genuine factual dispute that defendants did not engage in any conduct that would cause a reasonable person to believe that they had given permission for, or approval of, the consumption of alcohol at their house while they were away." The evidence did not support a finding that they violated MCL 750.141a(2) or a township ordinance. The court also held that "plaintiff's action was properly dismissed because it was beyond genuine factual dispute that defendants' conduct did not proximately cause Jonathon's suicide." Affirmed.