L.A. Beerathon Cancelled & Usually Lawyers and Beer Go Well Together

The L.A. Beerathon had the potential to become an epic Downtown Los Angeles tradition. The event had over 4,000 registered participants, who were ready to go on Friday, with costumes and fake mustaches laid out in anticipation of the event on Saturday, March 31, 2012.  Sadly, on Friday, the participants were informed the event would not officially be going forward and they would be refunded their $55, which would have permitted them to consume 26 beers at 26 bars, if they were up the challenge. 

The reason? The Beerathon organizers should have consulted a lawyer in planning or should hired a better one (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink). Believe it or not -there are times, us lawyers, can be helpful.  This one have been one of those times. 

According to an article on LAist (also the first to break the news on Thursday evening - thanks!),  one of the event organizers believed they did not need an alcohol permit from the California Alcohol and Beverage Control to sell tickets to the event because it was characterized as a pub crawl.   But the organizers were mistaken in their assumption.  The law characterized the selling of the Beerathon tickets as a ticket to buy access to alcohol, not participate in a pub crawl.  The Beerathon organizers did not have permission to, in essence, sell alcohol because they did not have a liquor license.  Had the event gone forward, the organizers would have faced misdemeanor charges.  In addition, the actual venues would have also been breaking the law by participating in an unlicensed sale of alcohol or allowing an unlicensed person to use their license without authority, which would have resulted in a temporary loss of the bar's liquor license.  Thus, the organizers "cancelled" the event to prevent themselves and the venues from violating California statutes related to the sale of alcohol. 

Good thing there are lots of events going on in Downtown this Saturday, like the Brewery Art Walk.  Or the organizers have Beerathon have suggested you follow the map and create your your own pub crawl modeled after theirs.