DENVER (Legal Newsline) – A man who was run over by a cab after attempting to break up a fight is a “rescuer” under Colorado law and can sue the taxi company for not protecting him.
On June 15, Jose Garcia prevailed on this issue in the Colorado Supreme Court, which determined the rescue doctrine applied to the incident caused by a drunken passenger who first fought his driver, then Garcia.
Getting the rescue doctrine to apply to him allows Garcia to argue the cab company owed a duty to better protect its drivers, as well as anyone who tried to rescue them from harm.
“Garcia succeeded in preventing the driver’s imminent peril,” wrote Justice Brian Boatright. “He jogged to the cab and, within feet of the violent aggressor, yelled at Glinton to stop.
“This was not a mere warning to the driver that danger was coming; the danger was imminent, and the driver’s best chance at escape was for a bystander to intervene. That is exactly what Garcia did.”
Curt Glinton was intoxicated in the back of a Colorado Cab Company car when he grabbed and punched 5the driver from behind. He was upset at the cost of the ride.
Garcia was waiting on a cab of his own and thought that Glinton’s might be his, so he walked toward it. He heard the driver screaming for help and opened the driver’s-side door to tell Glinton to stop.
While the driver fled, Glinton punched Garcia, knocking him to the ground. Glinton got in the car, ran Garcia over, then backed up and ran him over again. Glinton pleaded guilty to second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.
Garcia’s ensuing lawsuit said Colorado Cab should have realized from past incidents of violence that every taxi should have a partition between the back and front seats. It owed that duty to the driver and, as his rescuer, Garcia, the suit said.
The cab company argued Garcia did not exert some bodily movement of a specific degree to qualify as a rescuer. The Supreme Court ruled that a stringent physicality requirement “unduly narrows the rescue doctrine.”
To be a rescuer, the court ruled, a person must intend to aid or rescue a person reasonably believed to be in imminent peril and act in such a way that they could have reasonably succeeded, the court said.
Other issues on appeal are left to be resolved, but the ruling is good news for Garcia’s effort to secure a $720,000 jury verdict against Colorado Cab, which was given 45% of the fault. The rest was given to Glinton, and the total verdict was $1.6 million.