MBE Rules · Torts
Rescuer doctrine (danger invites rescue)
The rule
One who negligently imperils another (or himself) owes a duty of reasonable care to a foreseeable rescuer, who is not deemed an unforeseeable plaintiff and whose intervention does not, absent recklessness, break the chain of proximate causation. 'Danger invites rescue' (Wagner v. International Ry.).
In plain English
If your negligence puts someone in peril, you also owe a duty to a person who reasonably comes to the rescue and gets hurt trying. The rescuer is a foreseeable plaintiff and her attempt is not a superseding cause.
The trap
The rescuer is not deemed to have assumed the risk of ordinary negligence; only reckless or wanton conduct by the rescuer breaks causation.
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