Proof That No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

California has a Good Samaritan law, designed to shield doctors, paramedics and others from lawsuits if they render medical care in the event of an emergency

In 1980, the state legislature enacted the Health and Safety Code, which states that "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."

The State Supreme Court ruled that emergency care is only applicable if the aid is medical in nature. That sounds like a rather narrow view, to me.

It should be noted that a 2007 appellate court ruling first narrowed the focus of aid to medical aid.

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."

The case arises from an incident on Halloween night in 2004. After a party at which Lisa Torti and her (now former) friend, Alexandra Van Horn, smoked marijuana and drank at a bar in Woodland Hills with a group of friends, Van Horn's car missed a curve on winding Topanga Canyon Road.

Torti said that when she came across the wreck she feared the car was going to explode and so pulled Van Horn out of her car. Van Horn, since paralyzed, testified that Torti pulled her out of the wreckage "like a rag doll."

What the California Supreme Court has done has encouraged selfishness. Who would now help someone in a case of an emergency, IF they know of this ruling? Why would someone risk the financial well-being of their family? Your OWN family comes first, after all.

Truly an asinine decision, but supportive of the appellate court ruling I earlier cited, another such ruling.