Legal Action against St John Ambulance and volunteer life savers
The Brisbane Courier Mail reports that a woman is suing the St John Ambulance following her treatment at a surf carnival. The report says that she is alleging both negligence and that the treatment represented an assault, suggesting that she claims there was no effective consent. The case is in its early days and may of course settle out of court, but it will be interesting to see what the allegations are, and what the outcome is, should the matter proceed to a hearing.
Michael Eburn
22 February 2009
March 1st, 2009 at 7:48 am
If she caslled for their assistance, isn’t that considered consent?
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
A couple of points to make here. First we don’t know if she did call for assistance, we don’t know the facts in enough detail yet. Second, however, is that just because you go to a doctor for advice it doesn’t mean you consent to whatever they do and the same here, but if she cooperated that may be consent.
It is interesting to frame the cause of action in assault. Rogers v Whitaker, that famous medical case, said that where the allegation is inappropriate treatment the action is really negligence not assault. Without knowing the facts it seems hard to imagine how the action will proceed on the basis of an assault - an unlawful touching, so we will have to see how (and if) the case progresses.
Michael Eburn