Tag Archives: public duty rule

The Court of Appeals of Washington has ruled that the public duty doctrine offers no liability protection to Seattle firefighters who responded to the wrong address for a cardiac arrest. The case involved a suit brought by Delaura and Fred Norg after Fred suffered a heart attack in 2017.

Read More »

Today’s burning question: If a department eliminates a technical rescue discipline due to liability concerns and a technical rescue incident occur, could those responders be accused of nonfeasance? Answer: The direct answer to your question is yes, responders could be accused of nonfeasance. I think your real question is whether they could be liable and the answer is probably not…

Read More »

A US District Court judge today dismissed the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department from the mass tort suit involving the L’Enfant Plaza smoke incident. The incident occurred in 2015 when an electrical problem caused power cables to begin emitting large quantities of smoke inside a metro tunnel.

Read More »

In a split decision in a case involving a fire department, the Illinois Supreme court has taken the drastic step of abolishing the public duty doctrine in Illinois. The case involved a 911 call for a medical emergency that, for a variety of Murphy’s Law-type reasons, resulted in a 41-minute delay in accessing the patient

Read More »