Actor Morgan Freeman is being sued in a Mississippi court for causing a one vehicle car wreck that happened in August, 2008, near Clarksdale,MS. The allegations are that Morgan was drinking before, during and after diner at a local country club and the alcohol contributed to the accident. Demaris Meyer filed the lawsuit seeking damages for pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages and permanent disability as a result of the accident.
Any business that has a license to sell alcohol can be sued for serving alcohol to a customer who has become visibly intoxicated. So, in this case, if Morgan was showing signs of intoxication to the bartender at the country club, and they continued to serve/sell drinks to Morgan, then the country club could also be sued for contributing to the car crash and resulting injuries to Demaris. This is especially true if the blood alcohol content of Morgan was over .25% at the time of the accident. At that level, most drinkers show signs of intoxication. The time of the taking of the test is important because the body eliminates one drink per hour from your system. So if the BAC test was not done until about 5 hours after the accident and showed .15% at that time,then you can backtrack and prove that the BAC was .25% 5 hours earlier at the time of the accident. One drink is about the same as .02%, so 5 hours X .02%= .10% difference. Other factors have to be taken into consideration, such as the weight of the person, the ability of the person to build up a tolerance to alcohol,if you are a heavy drinker, and whether you have had anything to eat which slows down the absorption of the alcohol,but not the amount. There are also three phases of the alcohol in a person's system: the absorption phase when the person is drinking the alcohol, the leveling off phase when the person stops drinking alcohol, and the elimination phase when the alcohol begins to start getting out of your system.
There are numerous other factors involved in handling these liquor liability cases. We know one thing for sure,i.e., 40% of the accidents in MS involve alcohol.
