Employees died after drinking alcohol at a company party The organizers were sued for 1.2 million yuan

On October 17, the reporter learned from the relevant parties in Shangli County, Pingxiang, that an employee who died of drinking at a party in the county had the result of handling, and after many consultations, the family of the deceased was finally compensated 280,000 yuan.

It is understood that recently, the family of Mr. Zhang came to the Changping Township Judicial Office in Shangli County, reflecting the personal injury dispute between Mr. Zhang and the general manager of the company, Mr. Zhou, and requested the judicial office to mediate. It turned out that Mr. Zhou was the general manager of a real estate company in Jiangxi Province, and Mr. Zhang was an employee of the real estate company. On June 5 this year, Zhou moumou organized a company employee gathering, during which Zhang moumou had drinking behavior, and after drinking, he went to Pingxiang railway station to buy a supper, and finally returned to the rental house rented by the company to rest. In the early morning of the next day, Mr. Zhang accidentally fell from the window of the company's dormitory to the toilet, resulting in an accidental death.

Zhang's family was deeply saddened, believing that Zhou, as the organizer of the company's gathering activities, did not dissuade Zhang's drinking behavior during the party, let alone fulfilled his duty of care after he was drunk, which eventually led to the accidental death of Zhang. Zhang's family claimed funeral expenses and related expenses of 1.2 million yuan to Zhou XX, but Zhou XX believed that he did not persuade him to drink alcohol and should not be liable, and the two parties disputed the amount of compensation for Zhang XX's death, resulting in disputes.

The mediator of the Changping Township Judicial Institute conducted a detailed analysis of the case, believing that according to the public security organ's cause of death report, Zhang XX was an accidental death, and it was not a work injury, and could not apply for compensation for work injury, according to the relevant provisions of the Tort Liability Law, the company, as the organizer of the gathering activity, failed to fulfill the safety protection obligation after the employee Zhang XX was drunk, had a certain fault, and should bear the liability for loss compensation according to the proportion of fault. In the end, the two parties reached a mediation: a real estate company in Jiangxi Province compensated the family of the deceased with 280,000 yuan.

Coincidentally, there have been two similar cases in Jiangxi before:

01

The man spent alcohol in a foot massage shop and accidentally fell to his death, and the family took the foot therapy shop and his companions to court, demanding compensation for a loss of 1.1 million yuan. A few days ago, the Guangxin District People's Court of Shangrao City concluded the tort liability dispute case, ruling that the drinker should bear 60% of the responsibility, the foot therapy shop should bear 30% of the responsibility, and the two companions should each bear 5% of the responsibility.

02

The man was invited to a party and drunk to death, which triggered a lawsuit

On December 27, 2019, Zhou went to the restaurant for dinner at the invitation of his friend Wang.

During the dinner, defendants Xiao X, Wang X, and Xie X all participated in drinking, and defendant Yuan X and three others did not drink alcohol. Zhou Mou drank a lot of alcohol because of Wang's friendship expression, and soon he was in a completely drunk state, lying on the table, without physical movements and speech.

After that, everyone "carried" Zhou to the car and let him lie drunk in the back seat of the car until the family found that he was lying on the back seat foot pad and his skin was purple and decided to send him to the hospital.

Others choose to continue drinking alcohol during this time. In the end, Zhou died after ineffective rescue.

After judicial appraisal, Zhou Mou met the right ventricular cardiomyopathy caused by malignant arrhythmia and died, drinking alcohol can be used as a trigger for malignant arrhythmia in right ventricular cardiomyopathy, and the concentration of ethanol in the blood before Zhou's death was 326.99mg/mL, reaching the blood concentration of ethanol poisoning (100mg/mL), but did not reach the blood concentration of ethanol poisoning.

As a result, Zhou's family filed a lawsuit with the court as defendants, including Xiao, Wang, and Xie, demanding compensation for funeral expenses, death compensation, and mental damage consolation payments totaling more than 900,000 yuan.

Those who drink together are liable for failing to fulfill their duty of proper care

After trial, the Yudu County People's Court held that Zhou, as a person with full capacity for civil conduct, should have foreseen the risks caused by drinking alcohol, but he still allowed the existence of such risks and was at greater fault for his death.

Xiao X, Wang X, Xie X were negligent in observing the abnormal performance of the drunk and accompanying the car, and there was a certain causal relationship between the negligence and the final death result of Zhou X, and considering that Zhou X's own physical health reasons and his overconfidence in drinking heavily were the main factors leading to the tragedy, it was ordered that the co-drinkers should bear a total of 20% of the liability risk: Xiao X and Wang X, as drinking organizers, should have a certain duty of safety care to the drinking personnel, so Xiao X, Wang X, and Xie X were in accordance with 8%, 8%, and 4% respectively. Proportions of bearers.

Yuan and the other three did not participate in drinking, normally participated in the dinner, were not at fault for the risks caused by Zhou's drinking, and did not bear civil liability.

The defendant appealed and the judgment was changed in the second instance

After trial, the Ganzhou Intermediate People's Court rendered a judgment: upholding the judgment that the deceased Zhou was 80% responsible and the person who did not participate in the drinking was not responsible; the judgment was changed to Wang, Xiao and Xie to bear 10%, 6% and 4% of the responsibility respectively.

Know a little more:

Under normal circumstances, the drinker who has suffered personal injury should bear the loss, because the personal alcohol consumption and physical condition are only known to himself, so he should bear the main or full responsibility for the consequences of drinking, but if there are the following circumstances, the "drinking friend" should also bear the corresponding compensation liability.

1. Compulsive persuasion

For example, using language such as "not drinking enough friends" to stimulate the other party to drink, or when the other party is drunk and unconscious and has no self-control, they still persuade them to drink.

2. Knowing that the other party cannot drink alcohol, still persuade him to drink

For example, knowing the physical condition of the other party, he still advises him to drink alcohol to induce diseases.

3. The drunk person is not escorted safely

If the drinker has lost or is about to lose control of himself, and is delirious and unable to control his or her behavior, the drinker does not send him to the hospital or safely return home.

4. Drunk driving is not discouraged, resulting in damage such as a car accident

Driving after drinking alcohol is very easy to have a car accident, so we must strongly discourage "drinking friends" from driving, which can avoid the occurrence of harmful behaviors such as car accidents and avoid causing trouble to ourselves.

Source: Jiangxi Daily

Editors: Zhang Heng, Liu Mengge