Drunk and Aggressive — Who Could Imagine?

The Dublin Crossing Irish Pub in Surrey, sure it’s a grand place.  Open for brunch, lunch, dinner, & drinks.  Lots of drinks: 30 beers, assorted ciders & coolers, wines, hard liquors, shooters, and cocktails.

And it’s Irish.  So when Dublin Crossing served Ronald Goudie four beers and 4-5 (1 oz) shots in an hour and twenty minutes, and then let him go outside to his car, could any reasonable Irish pub owner anticipate he would punch out another customer?

The victim in this case says Mr. Goudie knocked him to the ground, fractured his skull, and caused a brain injury.  Mr. Goudie pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. 

Dublin Crossing said: “a sudden assault of another patron was not reasonably foreseeable.”  Not by a man with all this booze in him. 

Let’s see: 4 beers, 4-5 shooters, 80 minutes.  Who could think it’s reasonably foreseeable that this customer might be drunk and aggressive?

Supreme Court Justice Gordon Funt, that’s who.

Dublin Crossing tried to have the case against it dismissed without trial.  Justice Funt found that, assuming the Pub did overserve, it had a “positive obligation to act” (e.g., ensure someone sober took Mr. Goudie home, put him in a cab, or call the police).  It did none of those things.  Justice Funt ruled the case will proceed: https://canlii.ca/t/jgnwj.

Now Dublin Crossing can just cry into its beer.