What you need to know before hosting a High School Graduation Party.

    Hosting a High School graduation party in the backyard is as American as baseball and apple pie.  As many of our children are preparing to go off to college or enlist in the military after graduation, parents are struggling with the emotions of “losing their babies” while wanting to show their children respect as a blossoming adult.  At this critical and joyous juncture in a child’s life, planning and preparing to host a graduation party with adults and minors on the guest list can create an uneasy situation if alcohol is being served. 

     If you are planning a graduation party at your home, here are a few of the legal issues you need to consider if alcohol is being served.  Furnishing alcohol to a minor is a crime.  Under the Pennsylvania crimes code, a minor is defined for this offense as a person under 21 years of age.  “Furnish” means to supply, give or provide to, or allow a minor to possess on premises or property owned or controlled by the person charged.  If you are planning to have alcohol available for the graduates, you are committing a crime.  But even if you are not planning to provide alcohol to minors, if as the evening rolls on, and at some point you are aware that the graduates have in some way obtained or possessed alcohol on your property, you may have criminal liability.

     Pennsylvania also adheres to the Social Host Doctrine when determining whether a party host is civilly liable to minors who are injured after drinking alcohol.  A social host does not have the same obligations to its guests as a bar or restaurant, but a social host does have a duty to minors under certain circumstances.  Simply stated, the homeowner is liable for injuries to a minor (and possibly people the intoxicated minor injures) if the host intentionally or substantially aided and encouraged the consumption of alcohol by a minor guest. Stated another way, a social host is liable if alcohol was knowingly furnished to a minor.

     The Social Host Doctrine has gradually expanded liability for social party hosts over the past 25 years.  Currently, as discussed above, the Courts will find a host liable only if he has actual knowledge of the consumption or possession of alcohol by a minor at a party.  I predict that at some point in time the Courts will impose liability on hosts without actual knowledge but rather on hosts that should have known about a minor’s consumption of alcohol.  It is possible that in the future a host that is negligent with the care and handling of alcohol at a party that ends up being consumed by a minor could suffer civil liability.  The Social Host Doctrine: an uneasy topic with an unsettled body of law.   

     I congratulate the Class of 2013!  Have fun, be safe, and endeavor to make your corner of the world a better place.

Jim McCarthy is an attorney at the law firm of McCarthy & McCarthy, P.C. (www.mccarthymccarthy.com) and can be reached at JMcCarthy@McCarthyMcCarthy.com . Nothing in this blog is legal advice.  No one should act upon the contents of this blog and should consult an attorney for advice based upon their facts and circumstances before making any decisions.