Drunken head injury victim cannot sue allegedly negligent landowner; can sue for delay in securing treatment

Michael Lamphiere fell from an ungarded rooftop deck during a party.  He apparently suffered a very severe head injury.  A lawsuit was filed against he owner of the house where the party was held, alleging breaches of the pertinent building code and also negligence in failing to seek appropriate medical care for the helpless man.

The Court alluded to Lamphiere's admitted marijuana use and blood alcohol levels (although it did not identify the blood alcohol results or explain how they were obtained, given that Lamphiere was not taken for emergency medical care until the following afternoon) and to witnesses' characterization of his drunken behavior,  in holding that his own negligence must exceed fifty percent of the cause of the incident and was not a question of fact for the jury.

The panel did hold, however, that Lamphiere should be entitled to pursue his claim that the individual defendants caused him a separate, discrete injury by negligently failing to take him for timely medical care.