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rescue. There, as here, the owner-operator, on hearing the cry "man overboard", reversed and backed astern towards the drowning man. He was then about 75 feet away from the boat. Two life-rings were thrown to Dickie, the drowning man, one falling within 20 feet and the other within 6 feet of him, but he paid no attention to them. A boat hook was then made ready for use, but Dickie disappeared when the boat was 20 to 25 feet away. The trial judge found negligence, inter cilia, in the failure to turn the boat and come bow on. On appeal the action was dismissed on several grounds. The appellate Court held that there was "an entire lack of evidence that anything appellant did or left undone caused his efforts at rescue to fail". This was enough to dispose of the case, as it was enough to dispose of the Matthews' action. On a question more germane to the present case, the Court agreed that there was a duty of rescue owed to Dickie, but held that a breach was not established by the backing-up procedure that was employed; and, if there was an error, it was one of judgment only in dealing with an emergency. The Court noted that there was a conflict of evidence on the issue of coming bow on or backing up, and this too distinguishes Hutchinson v. Dickie (which, moreover, was not an action by a rescuer's estate) from the present case which was decided more than twenty years later.
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