Providing alcohol to a minor in Tennessee and social host liability

So your 20 year old friend wants you to buy some beer for the weekend party, no big deal right, your 21, whats really wrong? In Tennessee you can find yourself in quite the mess if your 20 year old friend explains to the police that you bought the beer. http://nashvilleduiinfo.com

Did you know in Tennessee by violating section 39-15-404 (which is the code section for purchasing alcohol for a minor), you can lose your license to drive for a year. Not only can you lose your license, you may also have to perform around 100 hours of community service, and it is a class A misdemeanor that will carry with it 11 months and 29 days probation.

Further one should know that if you furnish alcohol to someone under age 21, that underage person need only test .02% blood alcohol level in Tennessee to be considered impaired while driving. Now in Tennessee a minor under the age of 21 is eligible to serve the mandatory minimum jail sentence in Tennessee of 48 hours.

A collateral issue involving purchasing alcohol for minors is the liability civilly for the minors actions. An example might be you have a party for your daughter's friends in Nashville, you don't serve alcohol, you don't provide alcohol, but you make provisions such as everyone has to put their keys in a jar and stay the night, you patrol your yard to make sure no one leaves, and someone does leave intoxicated. You might be held liable in Tennessee based on common law theories of liability. It is the undertaking of a duty that may hold you liable, not the providing of the alcohol, if it was not sold to the minors.

Tennessee does have a statute that shields liability for this and similar actions of providing alcohol. The Tennessee Supreme Court has held that the alcohol is the proximate cause of the injury to a third party, not the person who provided the alcohol, unless the alcohol was sold to the minor and not given to the minor. However, once you take an affirmative duty to provide a safe party for the minors, you may find yourself sued should one of the minors leave intoxicated and cause harm to a third party.