Men Save Woman From Burning Car, Then Sue Her

In March 2009, two men saw a burning Hummer and saved the woman inside of it. Now they want her to pay up.

This is less bizarre than it sounds. Both men had serious smoke exposure, and one man, a truck driver and father of five, told the Columbus Dispatch, “he was a self-employed contractor at the time and had no insurance. He says his medical bills have mounted and his daily life is forever changed. He said they filed the lawsuit only after they found out from an acquaintance — long after the crash — that it had been a suicide attempt.” The woman apparently told the state highway patrol she’d had a fight with someone and “wanted to end her life,” the Dispatch says.

There is legal precedent for the claim, too — the Rescue Doctrine holds that you can sue someone for damages after rescuing them if they knowingly endangered themselves.

It will not win the twenty-eight year-old woman, Theresa Tanner, any sympathy that she was driving a red Hummer with the vanity license plate “5POILED.” Never a good idea.