Page 50 - The Circle of Life

(even if you caused him harm by doing so) you could not control a reflex

movement. We had a case where a fellow was poked in the ribs and in a reflex
stabbed the deceased with a bicycle spoke to death. He was found innocent of
murder. To be sure it must be a genuine reflex movement and not premeditated.

* When I met my American Patriot I said to her: Honey, I am very ticklish and I

do not take responsibility for my violent reactions if you touch me without asking
permission first! Of course it turned out I am not ticklish where she is concerned.

How weird!

This also implies you, the defendant, must not be insane and able to distinguish
between right and wrong to be accountable AND (people forget this) also be able

to act on what you feel. If not compos mentis when you did what you did you
can never be held liable. However you may then be locked up as criminally

insane.

With conduct you must have done something or in rare cases not done

something when you should have done something. For instance if you are a
policeman on duty (or not some argue) and you see a fellow policeman

assaulting a prisoner and you fail to stop the abuse you are liable. In general
though there is no duty on anyone to prevent harm and you don't need to

intervene as a civilian under the same circumstances. That is why it is said a
policeman is never off duty even if on holiday and not at work. He is duty bound

to interfere.

What about a medical man? Must he act when he sees a medical emergency in
front of him? I think there is a legal duty on him to assist unless he cannot for

whatever legally acceptable reason. Many differ from this viewpoint though
saying he may be sued in the process especially if something goes wrong

because of a lack of equipment at hand etc. As a matter of interest a hospital
could not be legally sued until quite recently as it fell under what is known as

charitable organisations and the law felt it was terribly unfair to sue those who is
assisting you in need. Then it changed with the Lower Umfolozi War Memorial

Hospital case in the 1940's. In casu the plaintiff was operated on and packed
with warm water bottles afterwards which leaked causing serious burns and

suffering. Since he was still drugged he did not know this until too late. That was

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