A Legal Basis for Corkage Fees

Having recently negotiated a formal dinner event with a local hotel I recognized a legal reason as to why an establishment would charge a corkage fee. Corkage fees have pros and cons and some of my wine drinking friends object to corkage fees and will not make reservations with restaurants that do not provide a corkage fee. Electing to bring your own wine and paying a corkage fee does carry with it certain standards of etiquette, though unwritten, that go along with the practice. For example, it is polite to bring a bottle not on the establishment's wine list, a wine that is a rare wine or something like a first-growth Bordeaux, and if the wine is expensive and rare it is polite to offer a taste to the sommelier to further help them develop their tasting palate. But truthfully there is an underlining legal principle here. The owner of an establishment has certain legal obligations and moral obligations in the conduct of his business. In the case of any owner in every state in the Nation, the owner must have a license from the State to serve any alcohol and that license extensively lists dos and don't s regarding serving wine chief of which is not serving minors or individuals who appear intoxicated. If an intoxicated patron leaves and drives a car and has an accident resulting in death the owner bears a certain level of legal liability. I am fairly certain most of us would agree that we want restaurant owners to carefully monitor how alcohol is consumed so that their patrons don’t leave intoxicated and kill someone, including us. There are many common law concepts that would apply here, one I can think of is the “Captain of the Ship” doctrine that basically says the Captain is responsible for what happens on his ship that harms people that he either should or could have controlled. So when I signed a contract for a formal dinner where I will provide the wine the contract clearly stated that the restaurant employees would serve the wine and would be prohibited from serving to minors or intoxicated people. The bottom line is that restaurants have a cost involved in order to serve you your own wine and so I can fully understand where the corkage fee would cover those additional costs the owner has(license fees, insurance, etc.)that allow him/her to serve you your wine.