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Good Samaritan faces lawsuit

Mon Dec 22 02:12PM
A court in the United States has ruled that a would-be Good Samaritan accused of rendering her friend paraplegic by pulling her from a wrecked car can be sued.

The Supreme Court of California has declared that the state's Good Samaritan law only protects people from liability if they are administering emergency medical care.

Justice Carlos Moreno ruled 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.

According to the lawsuit, on 1 November 2004 Alexandra Van Horn was in the front passenger seat of a car that crashed into a lamp post at 45 mph. Lisa Torti was a passenger in a car that was following Van Horn and stopped after the crash.

According to Torti she feared the wreckage was going to explode and she therefore pulled her friend out. Van Horn has testified that Torti pulled her out of the wreckage ‘like a rag doll' and blamed her for her paralysis.

Torti argues that she should be protected from a lawsuit because she was giving ‘medical care' when she pulled Van Horn from the car.

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Comments1401 - 1404 of 1404

  1. Van Horn states that she was pulled out of the car 'like a rag doll' therefore she must have been concious. Why then did she not say to her friend to stop and leave her in the car? She must have wanted to get out also but has since had time to think how she can make some money out of this situation. Greedy selfish wicked individual.As for the judge he is just an idiot.

    gordonreid687 From gordonreid687 on Sat Mar 07 06:18PM

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  2. The judge is a *****r.

    pmc227 From pmc227 on Sun Mar 08 10:45AM

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  3. i smell insurance

    bvrinmex From bvrinmex on Sun Apr 12 03:10AM

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  4. i was once injured and i had my ordeal made a million times worse by people not asking me what i wanted to do and the police were as thick as i had been nearly killed i kept going outside of myself from left to right after being attacked and this taxi driver asked me to sit in is taxi in highfields leicester before my attackers came back police came in a van they parked back of his taxi he went shooting his mouth off not haveing a clue what it was about he came back i had locked the taxi door as my 2 attackers did come back and went back to the party to get there story in first and the taxi driver said he had sent for police to take me away for my own protection so they must have phoned police and got there poisonouse lies in first when taxi driver opened my door he stood with it wide open not saYING ANYTHING 2 POLICEMEN WERE AS TICK AS NOT TO COME TO ME I HAD TO WALK TO THEM IT WAS OBVIOUSE I HAD BEEN ATTACKED I HAD CUTS ON MY FORHEAD A BLACK LEFT EYE BLOOD FILLED LEFT INER EYE WHITE PEUPLE I COULD HADLY WALK STAEDY WITH PAIN IN MY HEAD COPPER HAD BOTH ARMS ON MY SHOULDERS I WAS 2 MINUTES FROM GETTING MY M EDECINES FROM MY GIRLFREINDS HOUSE I WAS TAKEN TO CHARLES STREET POLICE STATION I LIVED IN MILTON KEYNES AT THE TIME THE 2 POLICE MEN JUST TALKED BETWEEN THEMSELVES OPENED BACK OF TRANSIT AND BOTH WALKED IN FRONT NOT HAVEING ONE BRAIN CELL TO THINK OF TAKING ME TO HOSPITAL WHEN I GOT TO FRONT COUNTER RECEPTION THIS P BRAINED BOMBASTIC LOUDMOUTH SO CALLED POLICEMAN LET ME USE THE PHONE I WAS GOING FAINT MY KNEES WERE BUCKLEING UNDER ME I PUT MY RIGHT HAND ACROSS COUNTER AND PHONED MY MAM I STARTED TELLING MY MAM WHAT HAPPEND FOR IN CASE MY ATTACKERS COME AFTER ME TO FINISH ME OFF AS THEY HAD BEEN VERBUALLY ABUSIVE TO ME MY GIRLFREINDS FAMILY AS HER DAD WAS AN EX LATVIAN NATSI SS OFFICER FROM RIGA AND I DIDNT FIT IN WITH HIS IDEOLOGY AND THIS POLICE MAN STARTED SHOUTING ABUSE AT ME THE 2 POLICE MEN WHAT TOOK ME WERE LAUGHING AT ME GOING THROUGH REVOLVING DOOR I WAS STILL TRYING TO TELL MY MAM WHAT HAPPEND THIS POLICE MAN STARTED SHOUTING LOUDER TO IMPRESS IS COLEAGES WITH HOW BIG HE THOUGHT HE WAS HE MADE ME JUMP I LOST MY GRIP ON MYSELF AND WENT 3 QUARTERS OUTSIDE TO RIGHT OF ME WITH THE 35 BLOWS TO MY HEAD AND 37 BLOWS TO REST OF MY BODY I SAID STOP AS I THOUGHT I MAY BE ABLE TO GET BACK IN MYSELF I TWANGED BACK INSIDE MYSELF I PUT PHONE DOWN I FORGOT TO TELL MY MAM I WAS GOING TO TRY ANMD FOUND AN HOSPITAL I DIDNT KNOW IF SHE WAS COMING AS MY DAD WORKED IN ITALY I ASKED TO USE PHONE AND THIS BIG BABY POLICEMAN REFUSED SAYING NO NO NO NO NO FOR 2 HOURS I DIDNT KNOW THE AREA IT WAS 00.30AM ON 23 2 1986 THEN I SAW WHAT THIS COPPER WAS UP TO HE WAS HOLDING ME UP TO LET MY ATTACKERS CATCH UP TO ME HE CAME IN MY GIRLFREINS STEP BROTHER I SAID TO THIS COPPER HES ONE OF THEM HE CAME PUT LEFT ELBOW ON COUNTER I KNEW HE WAS UP TO SOMETHING AS HE LOOKED AT FLOOR HE WAS A FOOT TALLER THAT ME I SAID HES ONE OF THEM MCNULTY SAID COME JOHN COPPER SAID GO WITH HIMRATHER HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ME GO WITH HIM WERE HE COULD OF DONE ANYTHING TO ME HE SAID HE WAS GOING TO KILL ME AFTER I SAID SOMETHING TO HIM AFTER HIS MAM PUT HIM UP TO IT AS SHE WANTED HER DAUGHTER FOR HERSELF WE PASSED THE BOOK FOR 10 MINUTES HE DECIDED TO THROW HIM OUT I THINK HE DID THIS BEFORE HIS SMALL POLICE WOMAN CAME BACK HE TOLD MCNULTY TO LEAVE HE REFUSED SO CAME ROUND COUNTER AND THROWED HIM OUT GOING OUT OF REVELVING DOORS HE SHOWED HIS TRUE COLOURS I COULD SEE HE WAS SAING SOMETHING NASTY ABOUT ME COPPER CAME BACK I SAID WHAT DID HE SAY HE WENT BACK TO NO NO NO MY MAM TURNED UP IN A TAXI I WENT HOME I SAT UP IN BED ALL NIGHT I DIDNT GO TO HOSPITAL AS I THOUGHT IF THEY CALLED MILTON KEYNES POLICE THEY WOULD PLOT AGAINST ME AND SEND ME BACK UP TO COVER THERE TRACKS 9 WEEKS LATER I WOULD BE PROVED RIGHT I DIDNT GO TO SLEEP AS I THIOUGHT I WOULD DIE IN MY SLEEP NEXT SUNDAY AFTERNOON MY BROTHER CAME TOOK ME BACK TO LEICESTER TO GET MY MEDECINES AS I WAS ILL WITH A PROLAPSEING BOWEL MY GIRLFREINDS FAMILY KNEW THIS HE ALLSO CHINNED MY 2 ATTACKERS WHO WERE A FOOT TALLER THAN ME AND WE WENT BACK HOME THE ATTACKER I THINK GOT HIS STORY IN TOOK MY GIRLFREINDS MAM TO PHONE TO THREATEN MY MAM HE WAS OF TO POLICE I THINK HE WAS TRYING TO BLACKMAIL US BEFORE GOING TO POLICE ON 25 4 1986 I WAS ARRESTED BEFORE MY 27 4 1986 HOSPITAL OPPOINTMENT IN LONDON I WAS TOOK UP TO LEICESTER THEY ONLY STARTED TELLING ME WHAT THEY HAD SAID ABOUT ME WICH WAS A PACK OF LIES THE BENT SENIOR COPPER HAD IS COLLEAGUE SAT IN FRONT TO PUT OBSTICLES IN MY WAY IN CHARGE ROOM I THINK IT WAS COPPER WHO WANTED ME TOO GO WITH MCNULTY THEY THROWED ME IN A CELL THEN AT 19.30PM I THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO INTERVIEW ME BUT SAID CHARGES HAVE BEEN DROPPED AND THROWED ME OUT 6 YEARS LATER IN 1992 MCNULTY TOTURED A 74 YEAR OLD MAN FOR 9 MONTHS WHO HE LODGED WITH ACROSS FROM HIS MAMS HE BEAT MR BURLINGS EARS TILL THEY HAD DEFORMED AND HE HAD MR BURLING ALL SO HAD A LIFE THREATENING BRAIN INJURY HE GOT 5 YEARS IN JAIL I THINK WITH WHAT CHARLES STREET POLICE DID TO ME GAVE MCNULTY GREEN LIGHT TO DO THIS SO ASK A VICTIM WHAT THEY WANT WELL SEATED INSTAD OF BEING A KNOW BECAUSE YOU MAY GET IT WRONG WICH IS USUAL FOR NOT ASKING

    johnwhitton1 From johnwhitton1 on Wed Apr 29 12:49PM

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