[Ansteorra] Water-bearing and legal risks

Jay Rudin rudin at ev1.net
Tue Feb 17 07:58:29 PST 2009


Pooky asked:

> Sure we can say let them fight and hydrate (or not) at their own risk
> that way the Society be less culpable, but here is where my lack of
> modern understanding comes to query, is Society even more at legal
> risk for permitting an activity and purposely not providing a crucial
> safety feature like hydration when the cause and effect is so clear
> cut?

The answer is a lot longer than this, and involves the history of legal 
cases and modern bureaucracy, but the short, easy, sorta-vaguely true 
answer is that if private individuals help people, then that is a private 
act -- nobody's business but their own.  But if a corporation says that 
they are going to heklp them, then it's a public commitment, that the 
people can depend on and the state can regulate.  If officers of the 
corporation provide water 99 times out of 100, then when somebody gets 
dehydrated that 100th time at a small, new shire's first event, it's 
because the fighter didn't bring water because he knew the SCA would do it.

By giving water officially, we have said that people can depend on us. 
Then, if we're not perfect, people will be hurt because of our failure.

Add to that the fact that serving food and water is regulated by the state. 
If the state regulatory board hears that we are doing something unsafe --  
say, letting more than one person drink out of the same bottle -- they can 
start an investigation AND MAKE US PAY THEIR COSTS.  Even if we did nothing 
wrong.  Even if they prove we did nothing wrong.

The annoying people avoiding responsibility for their own actions here 
isn't the SCA corporation -- it's the state of Texas.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin

P.S.  I repeat, the real answer is much more complex than this, and I don't 
claim to know it all.  The above discussion is incomplete, not exactly 
accurate, and untrustworthy.  It's still pretty close to sorta kinda 
vaguely in the same ballpark as the truth. 




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