Court Opinion

ID: 9513529
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:37:20.780974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:53.915629
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Chief Justice,
concurring in the result.
[¶ 28] Every case in which a person stops to render aid at the scene of an accident does not create a question of fact as to the intent of the person who stops. To that extent I disagree with the McDo-wells that “merely stopping at the scene of an automobile accident and inquiring whether any assistance is needed does not, as a matter of law, constitute rendering aid or assistance within the meaning of the Good Samaritan Act.”
[¶ 29] Because of my concern that each time the Good Samaritan law is invoked as a defense the plaintiffs will attempt to argue the defendants’ real intent in stopping, I am skeptical that a factual issue as to the defendants’ intent in stopping exists in this case. However, a passenger asking if “everything was okay” is sufficiently ambiguous as to the driver’s purpose for stopping and I reluctantly concur in the result reached by the majority. The moral of our opinion today, apparently, is that a person stopping at the scene of an accident intending to render aid or necessary or helpful assistance should immediately announce, “I am here to help,” notwithstanding the cynical meaning given to those words in other contexts.
[¶ 30] GERALD W. VANDE WALLE, C.J.