CALIFORNIA DRUNK DRIVING LAW: DRUNK BOATING AND CAUSATION
The Daily Journal Headlines on this case was, "Defendant must answer charges where court finds that death due to jump off of reversing boat was foreseeable harm." Huh?
So the defendant was driving a boat. The victim was very drunk and kept demanding to water ski. Folks told him not to, but as the def. was backing the boat up, the victim jumped into the
water and the propeller killed him.
The magistrate dismissed the case and the post-information court upheld that dismissal. The Court of Appeal reverses. They say that this is a causation issue. Where, as here, there's an intervening cause of the injury, the issue is whether the type of harm inflicted was foreseeable and thus within the risk of harm created by the def.'s negligent conduct.
I have trouble seeing any negligence by the defendant here, but the Court of Appeal assures us that the victim was very drunk and out of control, so the defendant, as the captain of the ship,
had the responsibility to folks on board, especially the out of control and drunk ones.
OK, the defendant was drunk while boating, but how is it foreseeable that if you're drunk while driving a boat, somebody is going to jump out of the boat and get killed?People v. Dawson; 2009 DJ DAR 4969; DJ, 4/6/09; C/A 1st
