No good deed goes unpunished, or so goes the saying. Such was the case with Lisa Torti, who is being sued for pulling a now-paralyzed friend from the wreckage of a Los Angeles car accident in 2004. The victim’s lawyers claim the Good Samaritan bumbled the rescue and caused injury by yanking her friend “like a rag doll” to safety.
But Torti — now a 30-year-old interior designer from Las Vegas — said she thought she had seen smoke and feared the car would explode. She claims she was only trying to help her friend, Alexandra Van Horn, and her own life has been adversely affected by the incident.
“I know [Van Horn] has a lot of financial issues and her life has changed,” she said. “But it’s not my fault. I can’t be angry at her, only the path she has chosen to take. I can only pray it helps her.” “I don’t have any more fight left,” Torti told ABCNews.com, choking back tears. “It’s really emotional.” The California Supreme Court ruled this week that Van Horn may sue Torti for allegedly causing her friend’s paralysis. The case — the first of its kind — challenges the state’s liability shield law that protects people who give emergency assistance.
The court ruled 4-3 that only those administering medical care have legal immunity, but not those like Torti, who merely take rescue action. The justices said that the perceived danger to Van Horn in the wrecked car was not “medical.”
Tough call. Now you know why many people are disinclined to help others.
#20 Think again. You will get sued for not assisting someone in danger..
20, there is a law against that..If you are capable, you MUST give assistance..
KEY WORD: CAPABLE… A Doctor could DEBATE THIS, as he is NOT a trauma Doctor..
21…CORRECT..
actually this will be a boon to laywers..
Not only can they convince people to sue for helping, but after this they can also convince victims (or their families) to sue for NOT helping.. they get you coming or going.
Damned if you do… damned if you don’t.
First thing we do is kill all the lawyers.
Most statutes in cases like this require “Reasonable” action be taken. Trained responders know better than to move a trapped / injured person unless there is a serious, obvious, and imminent danger of further injury occurring.
If this “Good Samaritan” used her gut instinct to pull the injured woman from the car when there was no obvious danger, she is the one that injured the passenger. If there had actually been a fire then she could justify her action. Merely stating a fear is not a reasonable excuse.
As someone pointed out above, in CPR it doesn’t matter if you break the person’s ribs. They would be dead otherwise. That doesn’t give you an excuse to go around breaking people’s ribs though.
True Fusion,
BUT, we can BLAME TV for showing that EVERY car explodes…On contact with ANYTHING..
I was a volunteer EMT back in the 70′s. I don’t know what it’s like now, but back then small communities had to depend on volunteer ambulance crews. I guess there won’t be many of those in the future. Changes in precedent of the Good Samaritan Law, WILL cause a rise in insurance costs for ambulance companies, and will probrably affect how they intervene. Imagine this, you’re in a car accident that looks like you may have had some back injury. When the ambulance arrives they see your condition and decide they can’t touch you and call the med evac helicopter. Unfortunately your insurance doesn’t cover that, kaching!
Gramps scratches his head and remembers the good old days.
So…
Pull out your cell phone and dial 911, which should fulfill that “Give Assistance” law and leave it to the first responders…
Let the suckers fall on the grenade of helping there fellow man!
So much for 2000+ years of civilization!
… and the self righteous idiots will continue to find an excuse not to do anything. How convenient to now have a court case to fall back on to prove your stupidity.
How does anyone know that this lady’s neck wasn’t already busted up before she was pulled from the wreckage? She couldn’t move when she was in the car.
The person who is being sued was 24 at the time when she pulled out her friend. You guys can take all the jabs you want about it being “Hollywood” and cars not always “exploding like in the movies” but hey that is ridiculous. How many of you would act perfectly calm in an emergency? We are human and we are all capable of panic. I’m extremely surprised that the courts aren’t protecting her as a good samaritan.
The money it is going to cost the courts would be better spent just giving the paralyzed girl some funds to work with. And if it is true… it is really sad that the girl being sued has had her relationship “jolted” with her parents because of the homeowners insurance thing. Her parents should be there for here no matter what in this case.
Sad.