Calif. Court: Would-be Good Samaritan can be sued

By PAUL ELIAS, AP via sfgate.com

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.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/18/state/n134850S58.DTL">Complete article

Asshole court.

When I was in Germany in the 1970's, the Germans passed a Good Samaritan Law that meant you could be held liable if you didn't help someone who was injured or in a medical crisis; just to protect against this type of foolishness. Perhaps the defendant expected the car to catch fire and didn't want to live with, or be held responsible for, not having pulled her friend out.