Menow had a reputation of behaving badly and was banned from the Jordan House Hotel for drunken behavior.

Menow was soon ejected from the hotel bar and started to make his way home down a highway but was hit by a car.

At trial, the court held that the hotel violated a common law duty of care to protect patrons from "danger of personal injury, foreseeable as a result of the eviction".

The duty, the trial judge found, could have easily been discharged by calling the police or arrange for a safe way home.

This awareness should have "seized them with a duty to be careful not to serve him with repeated drinks after the effects of what he had already consumed should have been obvious."