March 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 33

Fitness had a duty to use reasonable care in rendering aid to
Tringali when he became ill or injured.
In defining the scope and applicability of this duty of emergency care, the appeals court reiterated the following principle
espoused in the Restatement of Torts (Second) § 314A " that a
proprietor is under an ordinary duty of care to render aid to an
invitee after he knows or has reason to know the invitee is ill or
injured. " In so doing, the appeals court took note of comment (f)
to the Restatement (Second) of Torts §. 314A:
f. The defendant is not required to take any action until he knows
or has reason to know that the plaintiff is endangered, or is ill or
injured. He is not required to take any action beyond that which is
reasonable under the circumstances. In the case of an ill or injured
person, he will seldom be required to do more than give such first aid
as he reasonably can, and take reasonable steps to turn the sick man
over to a physician, or to those who will look after him and see that
medical assistance is obtained.
On appeal, L.A. Fitness argued that it had met the above-cited
" Restatement " standard. L.A. Fitness claimed its employees immediately advised staff to call 911 when they heard a call for help.
Moreover, when these employees checked on Tringali's condition,
they noted the cut on his head and the position of his back. As a
result, the employees decided not to attempt CPR because Tringali
appeared to be breathing, and moving him might worsen a possible
head or neck injury. Based on these facts, L.A. Fitness claimed it
had " fulfilled its common-law duty to render aid and secure medical assistance for Tringali. "
As noted by the appeals court, " a business proprietor cannot 'ignore' an injured or incapacitated patron and must 'take some minimal
steps to safeguard' him. " That being said, the appeals court acknowledged that these " minimal steps " would not include and " does not
create a duty to perform medical rescue procedures on him " :
Courts in other jurisdictions which have examined the issue of a business owner's duty to injured patrons have generally held that a business
owner satisfies its legal duty to come to the aid of a patron experiencing
a medical emergency by summoning medical assistance within a reasonable time. They have declined to extend the duty of reasonable care
to include providing medical care or medical rescue services.
Moreover, the appeals court found the Restatement's " first aid "
obligation to provide " first aid " to invitees on the premises did not
include " the duty to perform skilled treatment, such as CPR. " On
the contrary, the appeals court found reasonable first aid " requires
no more assistance than that which can be provided by an untrained
person. " In accordance with this common understanding of the
term, the appeals court found " first aid " may include calling for
help; positioning a victim; controlling a victim's bleeding by applying pressure; manually stabilizing the head of a blunt trauma victim
so the head, neck and spine do not move and are kept in-line; and

applying cold packs to soft-tissue injuries, such as sprains and muscle
contusions. According to the appeals court, CPR would be considered more than mere " first aid " because it requires training:
Although the procedure for CPR is relatively simple and widely known
as a major technique for saving lives, it nonetheless, requires training and
re-certification. Unlike first responders, for whom performing CPR is routine, non-medical employees certified in CPR remain laymen and should
have discretion in deciding when to utilize the procedure.
As a result, under the circumstances of this case, the appeals
court concluded " L.A. Fitness, through its employees, fulfilled
its duty of reasonable care in rendering aid to the deceased by
summoning paramedics within a reasonable time. " The appeals
court, therefore, reversed the judgment of the trial court and, on
remand, ordered the trial court to enter judgment in favor of defendant L.A. Fitness.
James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D., is an Attorney and Associate Professor in the
School of Recreation, Health and Tourism at George Mason University
(jkozlows@gmu.edu). Webpage with link to law review articles archive (1982 to
present): http://mason.gmu.edu/~jkozlows.

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