Payment to an ambulance for evacuating a drunk student

Shalom.

A boy collected money on Purim for the needs of the yeshiva and drank wine in order to facilitate the fundraising. The boy got drunk and was taken to the hospital, and now Magen David Adom is demanding 600 NIS for the transport. May this money be taken from the yeshiva funds?

Shalom u’vracha.

If the yeshiva, when sending boys to collect funds, relies on their drinking wine, even to a level where it is conceivable that they might need to be taken to the hospital, then the payment may be taken from the yeshiva. But if, from the yeshiva’s perspective, there is no reason to drink wine to such an extent, he acted on his own initiative, and it is not appropriate to take the money from the yeshiva funds.

In siman 176 there is an apparent contradiction in the words of the Rema. In se’if 12 the Rema writes that if people were partners in an act of theft, and afterward a false accusation (alila) came upon one of them, the loss is divided equally. But in se’if 48 the Rema writes that if an agent went on behalf of the one who sent him and was captured, the sender is not obligated to redeem him (and there are those who say that if the agent was working free of charge, the sender is obligated under the laws of a sho’el, but the Taz rules that he is exempt; see there in Pitchei Teshuva subparagraph 36). And Pitchei Teshuva subparagraph 35 brings the Chatam Sofer, who raises this contradiction and resolves it by distinguishing between a case where from the outset they entered into a business in which there was concern that damage might occur, in which case they partnered with the understanding that both would share in the losses, and a situation where the damage, even if it happened because of the partnership, was not foreseeable, and the one who was harmed must bear the loss alone. Therefore, if the situation is such that there are always boys who need to be taken to the hospital or close to it, the yeshiva must pay; and if not, then not.