Sanity prevails in the Carlsbad, N.M. case we noted last Jul. 25: “A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of 26 firefighters and emergency medical personnel seeking damages from El Paso Natural Gas Co. for emotional pain and suffering they say they suffered after an August 2000 pipeline explosion.” The emergency response personnel were physically uninjured themselves but wanted cash for the trauma of witnessing the disaster scene. U.S. District Judge William Lynch, however, cited a longstanding principle of law known as the firefighter’s rule, which “states that a firefighter or police officer is prohibited from recovering damages for injuries arising from the normal, inherent and foreseeable risks of his profession.” (Erin Green, “Firefighters’ lawsuit dismissed”, Carlsbad Current-Argus, Mar. 22).
Update: rescuers can’t sue over shock of witnessing disaster scene
Sanity prevails in the Carlsbad, N.M. case we noted last Jul. 25: “A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of 26 firefighters and emergency medical personnel seeking damages from El Paso Natural Gas Co. for emotional pain and suffering they say they suffered after an August 2000 pipeline explosion.” The emergency response […]
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“To Protect, and Serve, and Sue”
Walter Olson posts: ?The traditional “firefighter’s rule” holds “that firefighters, police and rescue personnel accept an inherent risk of injury