Bradshaw Vs Rawlings Case Study

The case of Bradshaw v. Rawlings concerns events that occurred on April 13, 1975. The plaintiff, Donald Bradshaw, was seriously injured in an automobile accident. During this time, he was enrolled as a sophomore at Delaware Valley College and had been attending his class picnic. At the end of the picnic, he left as a passenger in Bruce Rawlings vehicle. Shortly after departure, Rawlings crashed his vehicle into a parked vehicle.
Due to this collision, Bradshaw suffered serious injuries including a cervical fracture which caused quadriplegic paralysis. The plaintiffs alleged that Rawlings was negligent in operating his vehicle and that Delaware Valley College was guilty of negligence as it failed to supervise students at the class picnic.

There were many unique issues surrounding this case. The first being that both Rawlings and Bradshaw were under the age of twenty-one at the time of the incident, however, both were suspected of intoxication at the time of the collision. This assumption was confirmed later on during trial as it was proven that Marjorie E. Moyer had supplied alcohol to the sophomore class at the picnic. Additionally,
Nor did he obtain another faculty member to attend the picnic as his substitute” ( ). Additionally, flyers displayed all across campus, advertised the class picnic with the promotion of alcohol on them. This was problematic as “the internal regulations of the College prohibited the use of intoxicants by students under the age of twenty-one years” ( ). In other words, the above evidence would suggest that the College was apparent of the potential danger of danger in the use of alcohol by young