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View Full Version : :mad: The state rules that you can be sued for helping people.




gilliganscorner
12-22-2008, 07:02 AM
Just read this:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081218/ap_on_re_us/samaritan_protection



LOS ANGELES – 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.

California's Supreme Court ruled that the state's Good Samaritan law only protects people from liability if the are administering emergency medical care, and that Lisa Torti's attempted rescue of her friend didn't qualify.

Justice Carlos Moreno wrote for a unanimous court that a person is not obligated to come to someone's aid.

"If, however, a person elects to come to someone's aid, he or she has a duty to exercise due care," he wrote.

Torti had argued that she should still be protected from a lawsuit because she was giving "medical care" when she pulled her friend from a car wreck.

Alexandra Van Horn was in the front passenger seat of a car that slammed into a light pole at 45 mph on Nov. 1, 2004, according to her negligence lawsuit.

Torti was a passenger in a car that was following behind the vehicle and stopped after the crash. Torti said when she came across the wreck she feared the car was going to explode and pulled Van Horn out. Van Horn testified that Torti pulled her out of the wreckage "like a rag doll." Van Horn blamed her friend for her paralysis.

Whether Torti is ultimately liable is still to be determined, but Van Horn's lawsuit can go forward, the Supreme Court ruled.

Beverly Hills lawyer Robert Hutchinson, who represented Van Horn, said he's pleased with the ruling.

Torti's attorney, Ronald Kent, of Los Angeles didn't immediately return a telephone call.

Synopsis:

1) If a State regulated employee pulls you out of the car and paralyzes you, they are granted immunity from prosecution.

2) If you do it, that person can sue you.

The obvious moral hazard is nobody will help you if they think you will sue them. Remember that when your car is burning, you are trapped, and all these people stand around watching you die because they are too afraid you will sue them.

ClayTrainor
12-22-2008, 07:26 AM
disgusting...

ihsv
12-22-2008, 11:32 AM
It appears to be the mission of the California court system to invert all morality. What was bad is now good, and what was good is now evil.

UtahApocalypse
12-22-2008, 11:50 AM
Well I be sure to never help anyone in California again.

ryanduff
12-22-2008, 11:53 AM
It appears to be the mission of the California court system to invert all morality. What was bad is now good, and what was good is not evil.

So you're saying that Bizarro actually came from California instead of Bizarro World? Maybe that's not what you're saying. ;)

Peace&Freedom
12-22-2008, 01:00 PM
So you're saying that Bizarro actually came from California instead of Bizarro World? Maybe that's not what you're saying. ;)

Perhaps California IS Bizarro world.

H Roark
12-22-2008, 02:18 PM
Some "friend" that ingrate is. I bet you that she had no objections when she was being pulled out of the car. Leave it to California to always back the parasites of society.

Ex Post Facto
12-22-2008, 02:20 PM
I'm a firm believer in the "Good Samaritan laws" protecting all forms of helping someone. It's disgusting that we can allow people to freeze on the street, because of a lack of homeless shelters--when there are people with private property willing to put up a structure with a heat source; yet too many regulations are required to accomplish this. It wouldn't cost more than a few thousand dollars to accomplish.

It's disgusting that a kitchen that produces food has to throw out their food rather than giving it to a homeless shelter, in fear that they may be sued.

It's a shame that you can't use your own property, solicit help to cultivate it into a garden for the community, and give the produce to help people. Regulations prohibit this.

Maybe once the economy gets worse all these things, people will just do, irregardless of regulations.

phill4paul
12-22-2008, 02:30 PM
Just read this:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081218/ap_on_re_us/samaritan_protection



Synopsis:

1) If a State regulated employee pulls you out of the car and paralyzes you, they are granted immunity from prosecution.

2) If you do it, that person can sue you.

The obvious moral hazard is nobody will help you if they think you will sue them. Remember that when your car is burning, you are trapped, and all these people stand around watching you die because they are too afraid you will sue them.

You may only be saved by the state. The state will protect you. You may trust in no other, nor hold any other above the state. Thus endeth todays lesson.

Malakai
12-22-2008, 04:23 PM
This type of stuff is particularly scary, I've been injured and had my life saved (or at least saved from painful waiting) by a nearby friend.

ihsv
12-22-2008, 04:27 PM
So you're saying that Bizarro actually came from California instead of Bizarro World? Maybe that's not what you're saying. ;)

Fixed :D