No Duty to Rescue: Can Americans Really Leave a Victim Lying in the Street? What Is Left of the American Rule, and Will It Survive Unabated?

Abstract

This Comment begins by setting forth the five general exceptions to the no duty to rescue rule: 1) negligent injury by a defendant; 2) innocent injury by a defendant; 3) special relationships; 4) defendants who assume a responsibility to undertake a rescue; and 5) statutes. In Part III, this Comment briefly compares the rescue law in France to the law in America and questions whether the two laws are truly different and whether the American rule should survive. Part IV focuses on basic truths behind American tort law which serve as the cornerstone for the no duty to rescue rule and suggests that the American rule should remain. With a turn of phrase, this author does not seek to rescue a rule that does not need rescuing, but to analyze the rule for what it is and suggest how the rule should apply now and in the future.