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LAARWT
GOOD SAMARITAN LAW
By Attorney Jack Gordon
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 67
Manju and Jugal Taneja have
given $10 million to the University
of South Florida Foundation through
their Taneja Family Foundation to
name the USF Health Taneja College
of Pharmacy. The college was
established in 2009 and welcomes
100 new students for its PharmD
program as well as for other degrees.
The gift will allow the Taneja College
of Pharmacy to move into the new USF
Health Morsani College of Medicine in
downtown Tampa in the fall of 2021.
Megan Simon hosted her firstever
private VIP Joseph Ribkoff
trunk and fashion show at her Pippa
Pelure boutique on Beach Drive in
St. Petersburg.
Chick Corea, Florida-based jazz
pianist, composer and winner of 22
Grammys, was honored during the
television premiere reception and
viewing of In the Mind of a Master, a
documentary about him, which was
hosted by the Church of Scientology
at the historic Fort Harrison in
Clearwater.
Liz Smith and her husband,
sculptor J. Harrison “Jim” Smith,
hosted a reception to showcase the
contemporary paintings of artist
Donna Frost at their newly expanded
and renovated Gallery 1356 in
Clearwater.
Brandi Costa is the proud new
owner of Kookie Krums, a shop at
513 Main St. in downtown Dunedin.
Kookie Krums is known for its madefresh
daily cupcakes, cookies, cookie
bouquets and other sweet creations
to enjoy with one of their specialty
coffees, or to give as corporate or
personal gifts. They can be delivered
in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco
counties, or shipped anywhere in the
United States.
Gary Sasso, chair of the Straz
Center’s board of trustees, and Judy
Lisi, Straz president and CEO, have
announced that the Straz will move
forward with its master plan with three
local firms, Gresham Smith of Tampa
as architects, Creative Contractors of
Clearwater as construction manager
and In Vision Advisors of Tampa
as owner representatives. The
conceptual designs were developed
by Paul Westlake and stewarded
by longtime Straz Center consultant
John Toppe. The Straz is destined to
become a gathering palace, a cultural
crossroads and a sustainable campus
that incorporates the surrounding
landscape and Hillsborough River.
Good Samaritan laws are designed
to offer legal protection to people
who administer assistance to
individuals who are injured, ill,
incapacitated, or in peril. The protection
is intended to encourage bystanders to
help those who need it without fear of
being sued.
Under Florida law, generally there is
no duty to aid or assist an injured person.
According to the Good Samaritan law,
once an individual begins to provide
aid to another, a duty forms to exercise
due care. Due care, sometimes referred
to as reasonable care, is defined as acting
in a manner that a reasonably prudent
person would act under the same or
similar circumstances. The reasonable
person standard is a legal creation. It is
an objective test.
According to the Florida Good
Samaritan Act, “any person, including
those licensed to practice medicine” who
willingly, and in good faith, provides
emergency care or treatment to another
in an emergency situation shall not be
liable for any civil damages as a result
of such aid or treatment.
The individual who renders help can be
found liable if: 1) the helper fails to exercise
due care and increases harm to the other
person; or 2) the other person reasonably
relied upon the helper’s undertaking and
suffers an injury as a result. Essentially,
someone who helps another person in
an emergency situation will only be liable
if they act in a manner that ultimately
exacerbates the injury and/or condition
rather than alleviating it.
The law is aimed at medical
professionals who may be reluctant
to jump in and render aid in a public
emergency setting out of fear of being
sued. The policy is to encourage such
medical practitioners to help as much as
possible. In Florida, health care providers
will only be liable if their conduct was in
“reckless disregard” of the consequences.
Reckless disregard is defined as conduct
that a medical professional knew or should
have known would create an unreasonable
risk of injury to the other person. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jeffrey “Jack” Gordon,
a board certified civil trial lawyer in Tampa,
can be contacted at (813) 221-1366, or at
FightNegligence.com.
ADVERTORIAL
Kimberly Bruce has been
appointed the board chair of
The Florida Aquarium by its
board of directors. As the managing
director at CIBC USA, Kimberly
Bruce has nearly three decades of
commercial banking experience and
will serve as chair for two years.
Roger Germann, president and
CEO of The Florida Aquarium, says
Kim’s executive leadership and her
passion for wildlife, education and
community make her ideal to lead
the board during this period of The
Florida Aquarium’s historic growth.
In addition to Kim and 23 other
board members, nine new members
have been added to the board
to help support the aquarium’s
strategies, goals and needs.