McIntyre v. Ramirez

McIntyre v. Ramirez,
No. 01-1203 (Tex. June 26, 2003)

The
Supreme Court of Texas applied the Texas Good Samaritan statute to a physician
who responded to an emergency plea for a doctor’s assistance, while visiting
one of his patients in the hospital. The court held that the physician was
entitled to the statute’s defense against ordinary negligence since he proved
that he would not ordinarily receive, or be entitled to receive, payment for
the care that he had provided. In support of its holding, the court noted that
whether a physician would ordinarily receive, or be entitled to receive, payment
depends on what is customary. Thus, if a physician can show that he or she
would not ordinarily receive payment under the circumstances in question, the
physician is entitled to the Good Samaritan defense. The court rejected the
patient’s argument that the physician must prove he is not legally entitled
to receive payment under
any conceivable circumstance.