Assembly Bill 83, one of several Good Samaritan bills authored this legislative session, passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee unanimously on Tuesday and was amended to add an urgency clause.
The urgency clause requires a two-thirds vote and means that as soon as the bill passes and is signed into law, it will go into effect. Other bills go into effect on January 1 the year following passage.
The bill was authored by Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), the chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The bill's principal coauthor, Senator John Benoit (R-Palm Desert), previously introduced SB 39 on the same subject.
This bill states that non-medical good Samaritans who help out in an emergency are exempt from civil liability unless their actions constitute gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct. The bill was authored in response to the December 2008 California Supreme Court decision case Van Horn v. Watson, which interpreted California Health and Safety Code Section 1799.102. The plain language of that section says, "No person who in good faith and not for compensation renders emergency care at the scene of an emergency shall be liable for any civil damages resulting from any act or omission." The Court interpreted that language to mean that no medical person who provides help, or no person who provides medical help, shall be liable for civil damages. A non-medical person who provides non medical help can be sued by the person she rescued.
In the Van Horn case, Lisa Torti was sued by Alexandra Van Horn for pulling her out of a car that Torti believed was about to explode. The implications for California law mean, for example, that if someone is a drowning victim in a lake, and is rescued by one person, and given CPR by another, the saved person can sue the person who pulled them out of the lake, but not the person who administered CPR. This awkward result has been criticized by The New York Times, Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and others.
Assembly Bill 83 is supported by CJAC, the trial lawyer's lobbying group, the California Association of Nonprofits, Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, the California Fire Chiefs Association, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. There was no registered opposition at the hearing. It is not entirely without detractors, though. Michael Newman, in an op-ed in the Daily Journal, notes that AB 83 only provides qualified immunity to Good Samaritans -- that is, immunity except for gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct, whereas AB 90, authored by Assembly Member Anthony Adams (R-Hesperia) would provide unqualified immunity.
The bill will next go to the Assembly Floor for a vote.