Alcohol Consumption at Company Event

As Spring is upon us and hopefully the COVID restrictions continue to lessen, perhaps your company will be getting together for a company picnic or company sponsored event. Whether an injured employee is in the course and scope of employment at this sponsored event is dependent on the facts and circumstances. Have you wondered however, whether the employer can be held negligent to a third party for supplying alcohol to its employee at a company sponsored event when said employee causes injury to that third party? In December, 2021, the Pennsylvania Superior Court granted Summary Judgment to the employer that had sponsored a golf outing. Even though the employees contributed money to defray the costs of the golf, food and alcohol, that fact did not make the employer a licensee, but instead, the employer was determined to be a social host, and therefore, not liable for a claim of negligence. The consumption of the alcohol caused the injury as opposed to the furnishing of the alcohol. See: Klar v. Dairy Farmers of America, 268 A.3d 1115 (Pa Super, 2021).