Theresa D. Hall v. Toreros II, Inc.

A restaurant business licensed to sell alcoholic beverages had no legal duty to take affirmative precautionary measurers to prevent an intoxicated patron from operating a motor vehicle after the patron was served his final drink or to prevent an intoxicated patron from consuming alcoholic beverages on its premises after it knew he was intoxicated, and the licensed business thus could not be held liable on either of those theories of negligence for injuries received by persons in a vehicle struck by an automobile driven by the intoxicated patron after he left the restaurant, because: (1) the restaurant owner's adoption of the ABC Commission's Retail Guide as the restaurant's policy with respect to serving alcoholic beverages to patrons, which provided that a licensee should make sure that an intoxicated patron has a safe way home, was insufficient to create a legal duty on the part of the restaurant to prevent an intoxicated patron from driving after he was served his final drink; (2) an ABC regulation prohibiting a licensee from allowing an intoxicated person to consume alcoholic beverages on the licensed premises did not impose a legal duty on the restaurant business to prevent an intoxicated patron from consuming alcoholic beverages on the licensed premises by drinking the remaining portion of a drink he had previously purchased or by drinking a sip from another customer's drink; and (3) the restaurant business did not have a common law duty to take affirmative precautionary measurers to prevent an intoxicated patron from driving after the patron was served his final drink.

See: http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/coa/opinions/2006/pdf/050199-1.pdf and http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/sc/opinions/2009/pdf/187-06-1.pdf

Affirmed