Should Concert Venues Have Ambulances On Site?
The Georgia Court of Appeals was confronted with this question recently in Boller v. Robert Woodruff Arts Ctr.,Inc. In the Boller case, the Woodruff Arts Center put on a concert at the Chastain Park Amphitheater. The Bollers (husband and wife) planned to attend the concert that night. Prior to the start of the concert, Mr. Boller dropped his wife off at the Chastain entrance and then went to find a parking space. After finding a parking space, Mr. Boller proceeded to walk to the concert. On his way to the concert, while walking through the parking lot, Mr. Boller suffered a heart attack and collapsed. A parking attendant saw Mr. Boller fall and contacted a police officer who then called 911. An ambulance arrived at Chastain about 25 minutes after Mr. Boller collapsed and began treating him. Mr. Boller was then transported to a local hospital, where he eventually died from the heart attack.
Mrs. Boller filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming there should have been an ambulance and a defibrillator on site, and if there had been, her husband likely would have survived. The Court of Appeals disagreed with Mrs. Boller and decided the Woodruff Arts Center had no duty to provide emergency medical services to patrons. The Court of Appeals explained that Georgia has a long standing general rule that “a person us under no duty to rescue another from a situation of peril which the former has not caused.”
What do you think? Did the Court get this decision right? Do you think the legislature should enact a law requiring emergency medical services at events like this?
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Tagged with: ambulance, Chastain Park, defibrillator, Georgia Court of Appeals, Woodruff Arts Center, wrongful death
Posted in: Recent Appellate Decisions