Liability of a Rescuer in Tort Law

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The Oxford Law Dictionary defines rescue as: An action to save people or property from danger. There is no general duty to rescue people from danger, though a master of ship is bound by statute to render assistance to people in danger at sea. Voluntary attempts to rescue people in danger are encouraged by the law. Someone injured in such a rescue attempt may recover damages from the person whose negligence created the danger. The rescuer is not regarded as having assumed the risk of being injured and the courts are reluctant to find that his injuries were due to contributory negligence . The Law Reform Commission issued in total twelve recommendations in its report on the Civil Liability of Good Samaritans and Volunteers. The first recommendation made by the commission was: “The Commission recommends that there should be no reform of the law to impose a duty on citizens in general, or any particular group of citizens, to intervene for the purpose of assisting an injured person or a person who is at risk of such an injury” . This recommendation doesn’t impose a legal duty to act citizens however it does go on to describe a range of circumstances where by there is a duty to intervene and rescue. These have been imposed by specific legislation from decisions made by the courts. Some of these are the Good Samaritan and the Moral Duty to intervene . In this report it says “One should feel morally compelled as a bystander who can swim, to dive into a river to save a drowning person. Similarly, persons who are medically qualified or trained in first aid should render treatment to someone in distress.” This to me acknowledges the fact that a person by nothing more than moral obligation should aid a person in distress, if the rescuer has the correct skills be it first aid or just the ability to swim. People should feel obliged to help or render assistance to people

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