Opinion ID: 187379
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Negligent Undertaking

Text: Hornbeck argues that D.C. courts apply the well-recognized negligent rescuer duty. This doctrine  sometimes referred to as the good Samaritan doctrine, Fed. Ins. Co. v. Thomas Perry, Inc., 634 F.Supp. 349, 353 (D.D.C.1986), and famously articulated by Justice Cardozo in Glanzer v. Shepard, 233 N.Y. 236, 135 N.E. 275, 276 (N.Y.1922)  has been cited approvingly in the local jurisdiction. Security Nat'l Bank v. Lish, 311 A.2d 833, 834-35 (D.C.1973). The D.C. Court of Appeals has also cited with approval § 323 of the Second Restatement of Torts, see Haynesworth v. D.H. Stevens Co., 645 A.2d 1095, 1097 (D.C.1994), which outlines the negligent rescuer duty. Under § 323, One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of the other's person or things, is subject to liability to the other for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care to perform his undertaking.... Restatement (Second) of Torts § 323 (1965). The negligent rescuer duty applies to actions the defendant should recognize as necessary for the protection of the other's person or things. Id. The assignment of the phase-out date of single-hulled oil vessels was not for Hornbeck's protection. We see no way of construing OPA, which was passed in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, as an effort to protect the owners of single-hulled oil vessels. See Hornbeck, 424 F.Supp.2d at 39-40 (discussing OPA's passage). OPA was designed to streamline federal law so as to provide quick and efficient cleanup of oil spills, compensate victims of such spills, and internalize the costs of spills within the petroleum industry. Rice v. Harken Exploration Co., 250 F.3d 264, 266 (5th Cir.2001) (citing Senate Report No. 101-94, reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 722, 723).