The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state’s Good Samaritan law applies to everyone who provides emergency assistance, not just emergency personnel.
The law shields people who provide emergency treatment or care to another from civil liability provides immunity from their actions unless their actions constitute willful or wanton misconduct.
In a 4-3 ruling, the court upheld a decision by a Butler County court that the provisions should be extended the community as a whole, and that emergency assistance is more than just medical treatment.
The case arose after an accident in 2012 in Fairfield, north of Cincinnati, in which a truck driver named Dennis Carter was injured and lost part of his right leg.
Carter slipped while trying to closing the door on the truck’s trailer and wedged his leg between the truck and the loading dock. He wasn’t in pain at the time, but called for help when he couldn’t free himself.
A passerby, Larry Reese Jr., came to Carter’s aid. Carter asked him to pull the truck forward. But when Reese got into the vehicle, he realized he didn’t know how to drive it. And after he shifted it into neutral, the truck rolled backward.
Carter’s leg was broken and injured so badly that it later was amputated above the knee. He and his wife sued Reese over Carter’s injuries. They appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the Good Samaritan law only applied to emergency and medical personnel, after the county court dismissed the case and the appellate court upheld that decision.
Writing for the majority, Justice Terrence O’Donnell said that the language of the statute did not specifically limit who was protected by the Good Samaritan law.
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