Legal Lesson of the Month: Deafened at Lunch

EMS can be full of interesting and tricky legal scenarios. While you can’t have an attorney ride with you, it behooves providers to have at least some familiarity with the principles, precedents, and major issues of EMS law. To that end EMS World is pleased to offer the EMS Legal Lesson of the Month.

These cases are presented by prominent attorneys in the EMS field. This month’s comes from Larry Bennett, program chair for fire science and emergency management at the University of Cincinnati. Bennett’s department publishes a monthly Fire & EMS and Safety Law newsletter; subscribe to that by e-mailing Lawrence.bennett@uc.edu or read the latest edition here. Find this case and more in his newsletter archive. 

Case: Stephanie M. King v. Emergency Medical Transport, Inc.

Decided: January 2022

Verdict: The Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals held 3–0 that the trial court should not have dismissed the ambulance company (EMT Inc.) from this lawsuit.

Facts: On August 20, 2016, King was an employee of McDonald’s in Bellaire, Ohio. At 1:20 p.m., King took a break and went outside to sit on a retaining wall facing the restaurant parking lot. An ambulance pulled into the parking spot in front of where King was sitting, so that the front of the ambulance was about 2 feet from King. King observed the ambulance had 2 air horns on the bottom of the front bumper. The female driver got out of the ambulance, sat down on the wall with King, and they had a conversation. The male passenger exited the ambulance and went into the McDonald’s restaurant.

The male passenger exited the McDonald’s with a bag of food and walked to the ambulance. The female got into the driver’s seat, and the male got into the passenger seat of the ambulance. King heard the ambulance start, and at the same time as the ignition, King heard the ambulance horn. King immediately put her fingers to her ears as the ambulance horn sounded for approximately 8–10 seconds. The ambulance pulled out of the parking spot and left the parking lot.

King experienced hearing loss following the horn blast and followed up with her physician and hearing specialists because her hearing did not return. In May or June 2017, she was prescribed hearing aids for both ears due to 72% hearing loss in the right ear and 74% hearing loss in the left ear. After August 20, 2016, she also experienced headaches and balance issues. King said she did not have any hearing difficulties prior to August 20, 2016, but her colleague at McDonald’s stated that prior to August 20, 2016, he believed she had difficulty hearing.

The trial court found the alleged incident did not occur within the Emergency Medical Transport employees’ scope of employment; therefore, the company was not vicariously liable for their conduct. The Court of Appeals disagreed, finding the paramedics worked 24-hour shifts and were therefore on duty for the employer when the air horn was mistakenly activated.

Key quote: “Not every deviation from the course of duty is a departure relieving the employer from liability for the acts of the employee. In this case reasonable minds could reach different conclusions as to whether [EMT’s employees] were on a personal errand that removed them from the scope of employment or…the circumstances of the 24-hour shift and use of the ambulance [kept] them within the scope of employment because there was a benefit to EMT. Upon our de novo review, we find there are genuine issues of material fact for a jury’s determination as to whether [EMT’s employees] were outside the scope of their employment on August 20, 2016.”

Legal lesson: Employers may be liable for injuries caused by EMS personnel, including during their on-duty lunch time.