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Swenson v. Waseca Mutual Insurance Co.12/10/2002
atute does not cover the simple act of transporting an injured person to a hospital. Because statutes are to be construed as to give effect to every provision, before we can identify what acts are excluded from protection of the statute we must first determine the scope of the "during transit" provision. See Amaral, 398 N.W.2d at 384; Minn. Stat § 645.16.
Appellant suggests that the "during transit" provision protects acts of aid or assistance (other than the actual act of driving) given while transporting an injured person. In light of the fact that professional emergency medical technicians are already under a duty to provide competent care, appellant's interpretation would only protect those laypersons providing emergency care in a vehicle and in transit to a health-care facility while a third person drives the vehicle. Such a narrow interpretation of the law offers little protection. Nor does it offer much encouragement to a layperson to help others in peril. Given this restrictive alternative, and because the purpose of the Good Samaritan law is to encourage non-emergency personnel to help those in peril, see Tiedeman, 435 N.W.2d at 90, there is no other way to interpret the "during transit" provision other than to conclude that it provides a liability shield to laypersons whose only act of assistance is to drive a person from the scene of an emergency to a health-care facility.
To hold, as appellant urges, that transportation is not a protected activity and not eligible for immunity under the provisions of the Good Samaritan law would have the perverse effect of discouraging an entire class of responses to emergency circumstances. Absent a clear legislative direction that transportation is not a covered activity under the immunity statute, we are not willing to adopt appellant's argument. We hold that transportation of an injured person by non-emergency personnel is a protected activity under the immunity provisions of the Good Samaritan law.
Is a layperson who provides transportation for an injured person to a health-care facility, where the transportation utilizes an indirect route, or a brief stop on the way to the facility acting at the scene of an emergency and protected from liability as provided by Minnesota's Good Samaritan law?
Appellant argues that even if transporting another from the scene of an accident falls within the scope of the Good Samaritan law, it offers Tiegs no protection because she did not face the statutorily required emergency. Minn. Stat. § 604A.01, subd. 2(a). Appellant argues that because Tiegs did not plan to go from the scene of the accident directly to a hospital, a true emergency did not exist. Instead, Tiegs planned to first drive nearly a quarter-mile back to her house where she would pick up the rest of Swenson's party after they had parked their snowmobiles. Additionally, appellant also implies that because Swenson did not suffer a life-threatening injury , an emergency did not exist.
An "emergency" has been broadly defined by the supreme court in other contexts "as 'any event or occasional combination of circumstances which calls for immediate action or remedy; pressing necessity; exigency; * * * an unforeseen occurrence or condition.'" Gust v. Minnesota Dep't. Of Natural Resources, 486 N.W.2d 7, 9 (Minn. 1992) (quotation omitted). However, neither statute nor case law defines "emergency" in the context of the Good Samaritan law.
Coming upon a roadside personal-injury-accident scene is the epitome of an emergency. Flynn v. U.S., 902 F.2d 1524, 1530 (10th Cir. 1990) (holding that National Park Service employees who came upon the an accident just moments after it occurred, where an injured pedestrian
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