No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

December 19, 2008 5 Comments

In California, for the last 28 years, the Health and Safety Code has stated, “No person who in good faith, and not for compensation, renders emergency care at the scene of an emergency shall be liable for any civil damages resulting from any act or omission.” This has been known as the Good Samaritan law.

For almost three decades, Californians have performed countless acts of utter selflessness in coming to the aid of fellow citizens who are in dire need of help, from being pulled out of their burning home in the middle of the night to being freed from a crumpled car on the side of a freeway. These heroes have been protected by the Good Samaritan law in the sense that if they are not trained medical professionals, they still had no worry about being reprimanded for coming to someone’s rescue.

If I was choking in a restaurant and a waiter improperly performed the Heimlick maneuver and broke a rib or two, he was respectably safe from the additional injuries caused by his attempt to save my life.

If I was involved in a car accident and someone pulled me out of my over-turned vehicle, but dragged me over some broken glass, they could reasonably expect to be safe from paying the medical costs of the stitches for those cuts.

If my house is on fire and a neighbor kicked down my front door to save my family and I, they should not have to be held liable for injuries suffered to the bottom of my feed as I ran across the splintered wood to escape.

Well, that’s how things were. Thanks to our lame-ass California Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, citizens who come to the aid of another in an emergency situation, can now be freely sued by the very person who owes them their eternal gratitude.

“…the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a young woman who pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle isn’t immune from civil liability because the care she rendered wasn’t medical.

Lisa Torti now faces trial for allegedly contributing to the injuries suffered by fellow department store cosmetician Alexandra Van Horn, who was rendered a paraplegic in the car crash that ended a night of Halloween revelry in 2004.”

Source: The Press Democrat

So tell me: Will this change in California law affect your spur-of-the-moment decision to pull over and help someone in need? Because of this decision, will you be more likely to ignore the situation?

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  • http://ianferrel.wordpress.com Ian

    Eh, I can’t imagine that many people stop to think about civil liability when an emergency situation comes up.

    I don’t agree with the decision, but I think that your analysis is alarmist.

    I can’t help but notice that all of your examples mention minor injuries added on to (or in place of) major ones. That seems disingenuous to me. For one, anyone who sued their rescuer over such an inconsequential slight would be laughed out of the court.

    What if, instead of your house being on fire, you were just having a barbecue out back, and your neighbor saw the smoke and reacted. What if, instead of splinters, his knocking down the door resulted in a serious long-term debilitating injury. Would you still shrug it off?

    Notice that in the absence of such a law, people who render reasonable aid will not immediately be subject to judgments against them. They’ll just have to go through the courts like any other civil challenge. Rationality, severity of injury, and other considerations will still be considered.

    Ian’s last blog post..Instant Gratification

  • http://www.joshuasimmons.name Joshua R. Simmons

    I really appreciate you bringing attention to this ruling. I personally was not aware of it and it certainly affects me as a Californian with only very basic medical rescue training!

    This precedent had better be repealed… the last thing we need is an environment even MORE conducive to civil litigation when no mal-intent is present. This is disgusting.

  • http://burrowowl.net/ Burrowowl

    Tic-tacs and loose change, baby.

  • http://www.fireextinguisher.org.uk/ Mark

    If my house is on fire and a neighbor kicked down my front door to save my family and I, they should not have to be held liable for injuries suffered to the bottom of my feed as I ran across the splintered wood to escape.

  • http://www.deguia.net Daniel

    @Ian: You’re right, the examples I gave are very small injuries. The fact that someone who does a good deed, many times at some risk to themselves, to rescue others, could be sued for any injuries they may cause is absurd.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I would be extremely angry to find that my rescuer’s actions caused me to, for example, be wheelchair bound for the rest of my life. But that doesn’t mean their intentions weren’t good or that I should be able to sue them because, theoretically, if they didn’t act, I wouldn’t be alive.