Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Disability Law Blogs -> Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog

Disability Law

: Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog

California Supreme Court Rules That Good Samaritans May Be Liable For Damages

By Robert Kraft

div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"pFrom the news release of the American Association for Justice: /p p The AP (12/19, Elias) reports, quot;Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, the state's high court on Thursday said a would-be Good Samaritan accused of rendering her friend paraplegic by pulling her from a wrecked car 'like a rag doll' can be sued.quot; The court wrote quot;that a person is not obligated to come to someone's aidquot; but once they do, quot;he or she has a duty to exercise due care.quot; Also, quot;Appellate specialist Lisa Perrochet, a partner with Encino, Calif.'s Horvitz amp; Levy who wasn't involved in the case, had what will likely be the average person's take on the ruling: 'Remind me not to try to help anyone escape from burning buildings or fast-flowing rivers,quot; she said in an e-mail. But in a follow-up message, she added that in hindsight reasonable people could disagree.quot; She added, quot;If it's not an emergency that requires quick thinking to avoid serious injury...then one should apply the regular rule that if you offer aid you'd better be doing it non-negligently.'quot;/p p nbsp; nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;nbsp; The Recorder (12/19, McKee) reports that the quot;high court held that a state statute immunizing rescuers from liability applies only if the individual is providing medical care in an emergency situation.quot; However, quot;it doesn't apply when Good Samaritans accidently cause injuries while, for example, pulling someone out of a burning house or diving into swirling waters to save a drowning swimmer.quot; The Los Angeles Times (12/19, Williams) also covers the story./p/div

Full post as published by Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog on December 19, 2008 (boomark / email).