Bell Cab Company v. Vasquez

I cannot agree that a plaintiff who is attempting to rescue a third person from imminent danger and who is injured by the negligent conduct of defendant should be denied recovery because, in the rescue attempt, he failed to show that concern for his own safety which, presumably, would have characterized the conduct of that mythical creature, the man of ordinary prudence.

The rescue doctrine came to fine flower in the leaping language of Judge Cardozo in Wagner v. International Ry. Co., 232 N.Y. 176, 133 N.E. 437, 19 A.L.R. 1 (1921). That brilliant opinion rejects that dark and dismal view of…