A 15-year-old boy drowned after a wild bath following a dinner with friends. His family sued the restaurant and operators for compensation. The court has ruled.

A 15-year-old middle school student, Gong Mou, dined with several companions, including Yu Mou and Wu Mou, at a certain restaurant, where Gong Mou drank 5 bottles of beer. After the meal, the group went to a fish pond at someone’s home for open-air swimming. During the open-air swimming, Gong Mou drowned. After the incident, Gong Mou’s family members filed a lawsuit in court against the restaurant and its operator, seeking compensation. According to a report from a reporter with Red Star News, obtained from the China Judgments Online website, on March 23, the Liaoning Haicheng City People’s Court rendered a first-instance judgment. The court held that the restaurant should carefully determine the minor status of alcohol buyers by requiring them to present identity documents and other measures. The restaurant failed to fulfill its duty of review, and also allowed minors to drink alcohol inside the restaurant, which constituted clear fault. The court therefore ordered the restaurant and its operator, Zhang Mou, to compensate the family more than 27,000 yuan, totaling about 27,796.98 yuan.

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After trial, the following facts were established: At around 16:00 on September 13, 2025, Song Mou, after coming to celebrate a birthday, invited seven people including Gong Mou, Yu Mou, and Wu Mou to dine at a restaurant in Haicheng City. During the meal, Gong Mou drank 5 bottles of beer. After the meal, Gong Mou, Wu Mou, and Song Mou went to Yu Mou’s fish pond for open-air swimming, and during the open-air swimming Gong Mou drowned.

The court held that, in accordance with Article 1,165 of the Civil Code—“Where a person infringes upon another’s civil rights and interests due to fault, causing damage, the person shall bear tort liability”—and the first paragraph of Article 59 of the Law on the Protection of Minors—“In areas surrounding schools and kindergartens, no outlets for selling tobacco, alcohol, and lottery tickets shall be established. It is prohibited to sell tobacco, alcohol, or lottery tickets to minors or to pay out lottery prizes to minors. Operators of tobacco, alcohol, and lottery tickets shall set up signs in a prominent location indicating that tobacco, alcohol, or lottery tickets are not sold to minors; where it is difficult to determine whether the buyer is a minor, the buyer shall be required to present identity documents”—in this case, Gong Mou and the others who dined with the defendants were all around 15 years old and were middle school students. The defendant should have been able to clearly see that they were minors or should have exercised more careful attention. The defendant should have carefully judged whether the buyers were minors by requiring them to present identity documents and by other methods. The defendant failed to fulfill its duty of review and also allowed minors to drink alcohol inside the restaurant, showing clear fault.

According to the statements made by Yu Mou and Wu Mou in their interview transcripts with public security authorities, Gong Mou drank 5 bottles of beer. Such drinking behavior would lead to a decline in his safety awareness, reduce his judgment of the dangers of open-air swimming in a fish pond, and weaken his self-control, thereby increasing the risk of drowning. By selling alcohol to minors, including Song Mou and Gong Mou, and providing it for them to drink, the defendant increased the risk of personal injury caused by minors engaging in open-air swimming after drinking alcohol. This is an indirect cause of Gong Mou’s drowning. Objectively, it increased the risk of personal injury resulting from Gong Mou playing and engaging in activities after drinking alcohol in the fish pond, and that is one of the causes of his drowning. Therefore, it should be determined that there is a certain causal relationship between the defendant’s unlawful sale of alcohol and Gong Mou’s drowning after drinking. Legally, the defendant should bear a certain amount of tort liability. Considering factors such as the degree of fault on the defendant’s part and the magnitude of the causal force, the court decided that the defendant should bear 5% of the compensation responsibility.

Upon determination, the plaintiffs’ reasonable losses were 1,060,759.5 yuan. Based on the allocation of responsibility, the court ruled that the defendant Zhang Mou and a certain restaurant in Haicheng City should compensate Gong Mou’s family for economic losses of 27,796.98 yuan.

Red Star News reporter Jiang Long

Editor Bao Chengli

Reviewed by Wang Guangdong