Thirteen North Shore teenagers were recently given underage drinking citations after their hired limousine driver called the Highland Park Police Department to report that a teen tried to bring alcohol onto his “party bus” on homecoming night.

Limousine driver Leonel Cesar who called police to report
Highland Park teenagers tried to smuggle booze into his
"party bus" on homecoming night. (Chicago Tribune photo)


The incident has sparked considerable debate, and while many parents reportedly support the driver’s decision to call the police, at least one of the teens' parents has threatened to sue.    Personally, I prefer to have intoxicated teenagers in the relative safety of a chauffeured vehicle rather than behind the wheel.  Many parents and “zero tolerance” advocates will disagree, but that is a policy and human nature question less relevant to this forum.

This incident does bring up several legal questions.  In this case, the driver noticed that one teen attempted to bring a bag onto the party bus, questioned that teen, and ascertained quickly that the bag contained alcohol.  Generally, citizens have no legal duty to report a crime (excepting some professions and jobs), but the driver won’t be held liable despite a parent’s threatened suit for his reporting of unlawful teenage drinking.  The right of privacy crumbles when unlawful acts are involved, and at least one of the teens unsuccessfully attempted to pay to keep the driver quiet, which gave the driver actual knowledge of the teens’ possession of alcohol.

In this case, the teens were merely cited, but what liability might the driver and company have faced had the teens suffered injuries?  Illinois has a specific law that holds liable one who willfully supplies alcohol (or drugs) to minors for resultant injuries or property damage “caused by the impairment” of the minor.  This law also extends to those who “willfully” permit a minor to consume alcohol on non-residential premises under their ownership or control.  Hired vehicles, however, are not premises, and the driver did not willfully supply alcohol to the teens.

It is well-settled under the law that a hired company and driver of passengers owe the “highest degree of care” for their passengers’ protection.  As with negligence generally, this duty extends to protecting passengers from injuries that are reasonably foreseeable and avoidable.  Would the company and driver be liable, then, for injuries potentially sustained by the teens?  Certainly, were the teens to become drunk, leave the vehicle, and become injured elsewhere, then those injuries would not be relevant to the motor transportation.  Were the teens to become injured in the vehicle, perhaps while exiting the party bus, then the company and driver might be more likely to face liability, as it would be foreseeable that drunk passengers might injure themselves falling out of the vehicle, but then any liability could be reduced or eliminated because the teens themselves would be to blame for their intoxication.

The driver and company, though, were hired to provide transportation, not to act as surrogate parents or guardians for the teenagers.  They should not be held liable for the acts of the teenagers when they neither provided specific premises for the purpose of allowing teens to drink nor supplied alcohol to the teens.  That said, was the driver smart to be “better safe than sorry?”  Perhaps yes – we don’t know what the company’s contract states as to their liability, but had one of the teens become injured as a result of intoxication, you can bet that one of the teen’s parents would have sued the driver and the company.  In such a case, especially if the driver had actual knowledge of the teens’ possession of alcohol and knew them to be drinking, attorneys could argue that the driver and company provided a location – if not premises – for the teens to drink.  Even if the driver and company were not held liable, the costs of defending such a negligence lawsuit would be considerable.

Throughout the country, long-standing debates about legal drinking age and the responsible consumption of alcohol continues.  No matter what your own position is on underage drinking, as states consider changes to legal alcohol consumption age laws and incidents of underage drinking are increasingly examined by the courts and create new precedents in case law, our firm can help you understand your legal obligations and liabilities.