Rescue Doctrine Protects Rescuers

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Everyone loves a hero. Except maybe the ones who were heroically saved, and then sued by him.

A rescue party went searching for two California teens who had gone missing during a hike. The teens were found. Smoking meth. And it gets worse, because in the course of the rescue, one of the rescuers fell off a 110 foot cliff, breaking his back to the tune of a half million dollars in medical costs. SO the rescuer sued the so-called victims.

We all look for the happy ending; the imperiled victim gets rescued! But sometimes the so-called victim is actually a dummy who got himself in trouble and it's the rescuer who is imperiled.

There are laws in every state called Good Samaritan Laws that protect rescuers from being sued. But less well-known is a doctrine called the Rescue Doctrine, that says if a rescuer of a person hurt or put in peril due to negligence or intentional wrongdoing another is injured in the process of the rescue, the original wrongdoer is responsible in damages for the rescuer's injury.

So, when the horribly injured rescuer found he'd broken his back looking for two lost meth heads, he sued and won his case.

A happy ending. Kind of.