Who is responsible for falling down the stairs of a hotel and dying after drinking?

Drinking and talking about love is a joy for people to get together with friends during holidays or in life. However, in recent years, various accidents caused by drinking have brought many troubles and troubles to people in labor production, transportation and daily life. Some relatives and friends even ended up in court due to various accidents under the influence of alcohol.

How to properly deal with conflicts and disputes caused by drinking alcohol not only considers the moral level and legal literacy of the parties, but also affects the harmony and stability of economic and social development. Recently, the People's Court of Wuji County, Hebei Province, ruled on a case of tort liability dispute over a drunken fall from a hotel step to death, and the judgment of the case made it clear that the operator's safety and security obligations are not unlimited, but should be equivalent to the normal management and control capabilities of the business premises.

Drunk stumbling and dying on the spot

At noon on October 5, 2023, Wang's family in a village in Wuji County rebuilt a new house, and Zhang and 5 other people came to help. When he worked until lunch, Wang took two bottles of liquor to the second floor of a restaurant not far from his home for dinner. During the banquet, the six people not only drank their own wine, but also bought a bottle of liquor from the restaurant. In less than an hour, 6 people drank a total of 3 bottles of liquor. Although no one was drunk on the spot, all six of them were a little excited and shaky.

At 12:53 p.m., when six people went down the stairs after drinking, 64-year-old Zhang walked in the front. He had just taken a few steps, turned his head to talk to the people behind him, and when he was four steps from the ground on the first floor, he suddenly fell down the stairs, hit the ground with the back of his head, and remained motionless on the spot. The hotel operator hurriedly dialed 120, and the medical staff rushed to carry out emergency rescue, but Zhang had dilated pupils and died of head injury.

This hotel has been in business for more than ten years, and its reputation among the people of Shili and Eight Villages has always been good, and nothing has ever happened. Two years ago, a pair of "post-90s" couples took over the business, mainly engaged in Wuji County's specialty "Dumpling Noodles", and their popularity was also very strong. Now that they suddenly encountered this life-threatening event, the little couple was in a hurry.

Mutual blame and disputes are difficult to resolve

Zhang's unexpected death brought great pain to his family and made Wang, who hired him to work, feel very uneasy. In addition, his unexpected death also had a great impact on the restaurant where he dined. The hoteliers, Mr. and Mrs. Li, not only suffered damage to their reputations, but also suffered tremendous pressure from a sharp drop in income. In the specific negotiation of Zhang's death compensation, the village cadres and pollsters did a lot of work on the family of the deceased and the hotel operator and his wife, but they were unable to reach a mediation agreement because the two sides insisted on the proportion of responsibility.

The family of the deceased believes that Zhang's death was due to the narrow and steep staircase from the first floor to the second floor of the hotel, and at the same time, there was an idle round table at the staircase on the first floor, and there was no safety notice sign in a prominent position, so the hotel should bear the main responsibility for the accident and demanded that the hotel operator and his wife bear full liability for compensation.

The operator of the hotel believes that the hotel has been in operation for more than ten years, and there are handrails and safety precautions at the stairs, and there are no potential safety hazards. On the day of the incident, the concrete floor of the staircase was not smooth because there were no oil stains or water. The main reason is that Zhang drank too much alcohol and did not pay attention to safety that caused the accident and refused to bear the liability for compensation.

Seeing that the two parties were in dispute over the responsibility for the accident, the employer Wang took the initiative to give 65,000 yuan to Zhang's family in order to make Zhang settle in the ground as soon as possible, and assisted Zhang's family to handle the funeral matters first.

After the coordination of Li, who is highly respected in the same village, the young couple of the hotel operator is willing to pay 20,000 yuan to Zhang's family. However, Zhang's family did not accept it, and after many mediations, the young couple was finally willing to increase the compensation to 50,000 yuan, but Zhang's family still did not agree.

Judgment in accordance with the law, and acceptance of the judgment

On October 18, 2023, Zhang's wife Lei and three children sued the hotel and its operators Li and Wang as plaintiffs, requesting the court to order the defendant hotel and the operators Li and Wang to compensate a total of 401,704.5 yuan in death compensation, funeral expenses, and spiritual solace on the grounds that the stairs of the defendant's business premises were too steep and narrow, and the handrails were not strong enough, which caused Zhang to fall down the stairs and die.

During the trial, the plaintiff provided the surveillance video at the time of the accident obtained by the public security organs to prove the objective fact that Zhang had fallen down the stairs, and believed that there was a potential safety hazard at the staircase on the first floor of the defendant hotel, and that there was a dining table at the staircase, and that the back of Zhang's head collided with the table when he fell down the stairs, which increased the degree of danger, and that there were no safety warning signs on the staircase steps of the defendant's business premises, and no anti-slip mats were placed on the steps, and there were no anti-slip lines, causing Zhang to fall to the first floor when he went down the stairs from the second floor, and his head touched the table, and then hit the ground, hemorrhage, died from head injury. There was a potential safety hazard in the defendant's hotel, and there was a causal relationship between the victim's death and the defendant's failure to fulfill its safety and security obligations.

The defendant argued that Zhang, as a person with full capacity for civil conduct, should be responsible for his own actions because he fell down the stairs after being drunk. Fellow drinkers also have a duty to protect their safety. Under normal circumstances, when a person goes down the stairs, if he steps on the air, he should fall face forward, and the person concerned does not hold on to the railing and turns back to speak, which causes the accident of the back of the head hitting the ground.

On the basis of the evidence provided by both parties and the facts of the case, and after fully referring to the discussion opinions of the professional judges' conference, the presiding judge followed articles 54, 56, 1165, paragraph 1, 1173, 1179, and 1181 of the "Civil Code of the People's Republic of China", article 18 of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests", and article 14 of the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases", Article 15 stipulates that Zhang is at fault for the accident and bears 90% responsibility, and the defendant hotel and the operator's husband and wife bear 10% responsibility for the accident, and the defendant hotel and the operator Li and Wang are sentenced to compensate the plaintiff RMB 75,713.1.

In the process of handling the case, the Wuji Court thoroughly implemented the "Opinions on Strengthening the Governance of Litigation Sources and Promoting the Resolution of Conflicts and Disputes at the Source" deliberated and adopted by the 18th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, and implemented the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court's "three down, three into three linkage" litigation source governance mechanism. On March 22, 2024, the defendant took the initiative to pay the compensation to the plaintiff, and the case was successfully resolved.

Trial Analysis

Divide responsibilities according to facts and make fair judgments

When discussing the case at the meeting of professional judges of the Wuji County People's Court, it was believed that the 64-year-old Zhang's children were adults and had a harmonious family, and it was a good time to enjoy the happiness of his old age, but he failed to pay attention to his own safety due to excessive drinking, resulting in an accidental fall down the stairs and his death. The multi-angle video footage provided by the public security organs shows that although the hotel operated by the defendant had safety flaws, Zhang bore unshirkable primary responsibility for his own safety.

The defendant had been operating a restaurant for more than two years, and although the stairs were slightly steep and narrow, the guardrails were intact, the stairs were made of cement, which were flat and non-slip, and there were no traces of oil and water at the time of the accident. It is precisely because the person concerned is older and has drunk too much alcohol that his sense of self-control is affected, and according to common sense, when going downstairs, he should face forward and look at the stairs under his feet and step steadily, but when he walks to the middle of the stairs, he turns around and talks to his friend behind him, and his feet are empty, causing his back to fall down and his head hitting the ground, causing an accident in which he dies on the spot. If Zhang had drunk a little less, held on to the railing when he went down the stairs, did not turn around to talk to others, and his companions supported him, this tragedy would not have occurred.

Of course, the defendant placed the safety reminder sign behind the idle round table, which was blocked, and the guests could not see the warning sign conspicuously when they went up and down the stairs, and the staircase was not spacious enough, and the idle dining table was placed not far from the staircase, although these safety defects were not directly causally related to Zhang's death, they were also negligent and negligent on the part of the hotel operator.

According to Article 1173 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, if the infringed party is at fault for the occurrence or expansion of the same damage, the liability of the infringer may be reduced. In this case, Zhang, as a person with full capacity for civil conduct, should have understood his physical condition and fulfilled his duty of care and care for the surrounding environment and his own safety. Zhang, who was 64 years old or older, fell downstairs after eating and drinking in a restaurant, and his own behavior was seriously at fault for the occurrence of the result, so Zhang himself should bear primary responsibility for the occurrence of the result.

In accordance with the first paragraph of Article 1165 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China: Where the actor infringes on the civil rights and interests of others due to fault and causes harm, he shall bear tort liability. Article 18 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests: Business operators shall ensure that the goods or services they provide meet the requirements for protecting the safety of persons and property. For goods and services that might endanger the safety of persons or property, consumers shall be given a truthful explanation and clear warning, and the methods for using the goods or receiving services correctly and the methods for preventing harm from occurring shall be explained and marked. Operators of hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, banks, airports, stations, ports, theaters, and other business venues shall fulfill their obligations to ensure the safety of consumers. In this case, it can be seen that the stairs are slightly steep and the folding tables are improperly placed at the exit of the stairs in the hotel, so the defendant hotel and the actual operators Li and Wang have not fully fulfilled their reasonable safety and security obligations to Zhang, and should jointly bear 10% of the civil liability for compensation according to the degree of their fault.