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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
Large retail stores in California do not face a common law requirement to have automatic external defibrillators on their premises for customers with medical emergencies, the California Supreme Court has ruled.
In a unanimous ruling Monday, the state’s high court held that while health studios in the state are required to have AEDs on premises, the Legislature has imposed no similar requirement on other types of businesses, although they are encouraged to have them available.
The California Supreme Court considered the issue at the direction of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sought the higher court’s guidance on the issue in December 2012 in considering a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a woman, Mary Ann Verdugo, who suffered sudden cardiac arrest and subsequently died while shopping in a Target Corp. store in Pico Rivera, California, in August 2008.
There was no AED available in that store, and the family sued in California Superior Court. Minneapolis-based Target subsequently had the case moved to U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, where it won a motion to dismiss the case arguing that the company had no duty to acquire and install an AED in its store.
The Verdugos appealed to the 9th Circuit, arguing that such a duty does exist under California common law.
“We conclude that, under California law, Target’s common law duty of reasonable care to its patrons does not include an obligation to acquire and make available an AED for the use of its patrons in a medical emergency,” California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said in the court’s opinion.