Tims v. Hasselberger (A09A0035) - Wrongful Death
Greg Wade Murray died after consuming alcohol and methadone pills at a party Justin Tims hosted while his parents were out of town. Frances and Michael Tims went out of town for the weekend of May 14-15, 2005. Before they left, they instructed their son, Justin, that he was not to stay at their house and he was not to have parties at the house. Justin told his parents he would stay with his friend or his employer. On May 15, 2005, Justin hosted a party which Greg Murray attended. A third party sold Greg three methadone pills and Greg died later that night from methadone toxicity. Greg's mother brought a wrongful death suit against the Timses.
In Georgia, parents are not liable for the torts of their minor children "merely because of the parent-child relationship." Parents are only liable when the negligence of the child is imputed to the parent or the parent was negligent. The Timses did not supply the methadone or the alcohol, therefore the standard for imposing liability is whether the parent knew of the child's "proclivity or propensity for the specific dangerous activity." Here, there was no evidence that the Timses knew Justin or Greg had ever consumed methadone. The Timses had no reason to anticipate that their son would host a party at their home at which an individual would sell Greg methadone and that Greg would ingest the methadone. Furthermore, Georgia has declined to place a duty on parents to arrange for the supervision of their teenagers while they are out of town. The Timses are not liable for Greg's death and had no duty to guard against it.
Although the parent-child relationship is legally significant, parents cannot be held liable for their children's actions if they had no knowledge that the activity was likely to occur.
