Some people are just born stupid

A DRUNKEN woman run over while walking down a darkened street today failed in her bid to sue the club where she spent the whole day drinking.
The High Court today ruled the club had not breached any duty of care it owed her.
The court was told Rosellie Jonnell Cole, 45 at the time of the accident in June 1994, started drinking at the South Tweed Heads Rugby League Football Club around 9.30am to 10am at a regular Sunday champagne breakfast then stayed until she was asked to leave at 5.30pm.
Just under an hour later, and not far from the club, she was struck and seriously injured as she walked down a road.
Ms Cole was found to have a blood alcohol reading of 0.238 – approaching five times the legal limit for driving.
The New South Wales Court of Appeal found the vehicle driver Angela Lawrence had not driven negligently and that the club owed Ms Cole only the general duty of care.
She appealed to the High Court, arguing that the club supplied her with drink when a reasonable person would know she was intoxicated and that it allowed her to leave in an unsafe condition.
However, the court was told the club had not served her after 12.30pm and other people then purchased the alcohol she consumed.
The club refused her service from 3pm.
After behaving in an offensive manner she was asked to leave about 5.30pm. The club manager offered her both the club’s courtesy bus and to call a taxi.
She refused and abused him.
Two men she had befriended said they would take care of her and they left.
The High Court, by a 4-2 majority, dismissed her appeal.
It held that an adult in Ms Cole’s position knew the effects and risks of excessive drinking and that the club had done all that could be expected to ensure her safety.
The Court held the club could not be expected to monitor the number of drinks consumed by each patron or to compel her to stay on its premises to sober up after she refused its offers of transport.
Justice Michael Kirby, one of two dissenting judges, said the club started serving free drinks then tolerated the continued presence on its premises of a patron who became drunk, indecent and offensive.
It could not then say it owed no duty of care to her.
“It cannot do so when soon after she left its premises the virtually inevitable motor accident occurred with serious injuries to her person,” he said.