Bell v. Community Ambulance Service Agency for Northern Des Moines County
| Decision Date | 28 May 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-1157,96-1157 |
| Parties | Susan BELL, Appellant, v. COMMUNITY AMBULANCE SERVICE AGENCY FOR NORTHERN DES MOINES COUNTY, Yellow Spring Township, Franklin Township, Benton Township, Huron Township, Washington Township, Jackson Township, The City of Mediapolis, and John Warren Hinson, Appellees. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Steven J. Crowley and Nicholas G. Pothitakis of Crowley, Bunger & Pothitakis, Burlington, for appellant.
Thomas J. Shields and Jed E. Brokaw of Lane & Waterman, Davenport, for appellees.
Considered by HARRIS, P.J., and CARTER, NEUMAN, SNELL, and ANDREASEN, JJ.
This appeal by plaintiff raises the legal question as to the standard of care applicable in the operation of an ambulance responding in an emergency situation. The trial court instructed the jury that for plaintiff to establish fault, the ambulance driver's conduct must be proven to be reckless. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff. On motion by defendants, the district court entered an order for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and dismissed plaintiff's petition. We affirm.
On the afternoon of March 17, 1993, John Hinson, a driver for Community Ambulance Service Agency (Community Ambulance), was driving a patient from Mediapolis, Iowa to Burlington Medical Center at Burlington, Iowa. Hinson had been a driver for Community Ambulance for twelve years. As Hinson entered the north end of Burlington, he radioed the Burlington police department dispatcher and requested the traffic lights on Roosevelt Avenue be changed from the normal traffic cycle to flashing red in all directions. As Hinson drove south on Roosevelt Avenue, the dispatcher kept changing the lights to flashing red. Hinson had on his siren and flashing red lights. He was traveling approximately forty miles per hour.
About the same time, the plaintiff, Susan Bell, was on her way to work at Champion Spark Plug. Bell was traveling west on Kirkwood Street. Bell had her windows rolled up and her radio on. The traffic lights that control the intersection changed from their regular cycle to flashing red lights in all directions. As she approached the flashing red lights at the intersection of Kirkwood and Roosevelt, traffic was heavy. Bell stopped her westbound vehicle at the intersection and checked for traffic in both directions. Neither Bell nor Hinson could see each other due to traffic in the southbound left-turn lane of Roosevelt Avenue. Bell proceeded to travel through the intersection when she was hit in the passenger door area by the ambulance driven by Hinson. The force of the impact pushed Bell's car to a grassy area to the southwest of the intersection. The ambulance came to rest in the middle of the intersection.
Bell's car was demolished, and she was extracted from the car by the jaws of life. Bell suffered serious injuries in the crash, including a complex hip fracture, scalp lacerations, a fractured jaw, two broken fingers, glass lacerations on her face, and a closed head wound. Following a police investigation, no traffic citations were issued.
On September 24, 1993, Bell filed a petition for damages against Hinson, Community Ambulance, and the townships which utilized its services. Hinson was dismissed as a defendant immediately before the trial began. At trial, Hinson testified that he estimated he was traveling at a speed in excess of forty miles per hour when he approached the intersection of Kirkwood and Roosevelt. As he approached the intersection, Hinson stated that he slowed down and noted that the intersection was completely clear with no traffic moving in front of him. Proceeding into the intersection, Hinson suddenly saw Bell, immediately applied his brakes and left skid marks. He testified Bell's car came into the intersection suddenly. Hinson maintained he applied his brakes but there was too little time to avoid the accident.
Bell attempted to show that Hinson's driving performance was negligent. Bell asserted that there was no real emergency, since the patient in the ambulance was not in a life-threatening condition. Bell additionally argued that Hinson did not follow his emergency training manual, since he failed to make eye contact with all cross-traffic before entering the intersection. Bell disputed Hinson's claim he had a clear view of the intersection due to the heavy traffic at the intersection. Bell made an offer of proof regarding the testimony of Randy Westfall, an expert in the field of emergency vehicle operation. Westfall testified that Hinson's actions fell well below the accepted standard of care for emergency vehicles. The district court excluded the testimony based on defense counsel's objection that Westfall's testimony involved mixed questions of law and fact.
Following the close of all the evidence, the district court submitted its instructions to the jury. Over Bell's objection, the court submitted an instruction to the jury stating she had the burden of proving that Hinson's conduct was reckless in order to establish fault. The jury returned a verdict against the defendants, finding Bell twenty-five percent at fault and the defendants seventy-five percent at fault. The jury awarded Bell a total damage award of $881,025, including past and future medical expenses and past and future pain and suffering.
The defendants filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a motion for new trial. The district court granted the motion, noting that the duty owed to Bell by Hinson and Community Ambulance did not originate from the normal rules of the road but from Iowa Code section 321.231 (1993), due to the fact the vehicle being operated was an ambulance. The court concluded the jury either misunderstood the instructions regarding recklessness or ignored them, and ruled there was no substantial evidence to support the jury's verdict. The district court entered an order dismissing Bell's petition. Bell has appealed.
Bell argues the district court erred in requiring her to prove Hinson's conduct was reckless. Bell argues the only applicability of section 321.231 is whether the defendants could rely on that statute as a legal excuse. Bell asserts Hinson committed negligence per se when he ran through the flashing red lights without stopping. She insists there is no evidence that the condition of the patient in the ambulance amounted to an emergency condition justifying Hinson's speed. Bell notes that there is no mention of recklessness in section 321.231. She claims that the recklessness requirement applies only when a plaintiff relies solely upon section 321.231 as a basis for liability. She contends the jury verdict should be reinstated. Bell lastly contends the district court erred in excluding Westfall's testimony regarding Hinson's conduct.
Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 243 provides in pertinent part as follows:
On motion, any party may have judgment in that party's favor despite an adverse verdict, or the jury's failure to return any verdict:
....
b. If the movant was entitled to a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence, and moved therefor, and the jury did not return such verdict, the court may then either grant a new trial or enter judgment as though it had directed a verdict for the movant.
Our review of the granting of a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict is for the correction of errors at law. Vaughan v. Must, Inc., 542 N.W.2d 533, 538 (Iowa 1996) (citing Iowa R.App. P. 4). Findings of fact made by the district court are binding on appeal as long as they are supported by substantial evidence. Id. (citing Iowa R.App. P. 14(f)(1)). "To overrule the motion, the court must find substantial evidence in support of each element of the non-moving party's claim." Id. Evidence is substantial when a reasonable mind would accept it as adequate to reach a conclusion. Briggs v. Board of Dirs., 282 N.W.2d 740, 743 (Iowa 1979).
"In reviewing a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion is directed." Engstrand v. West Des Moines State Bank, 516 N.W.2d 797, 799 (Iowa 1994). A motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict must stand or fall on the grounds stated in the motion for directed verdict. Watson v. Lewis, 272 N.W.2d 459, 461 (Iowa 1978).
At the time of the accident, Hinson was transporting a seriously ill elderly patient to Burlington Medical Center. The patient had been picked up by the ambulance at her home in Mediapolis, Iowa. Her condition was diagnosed by emergency medical technicians. Based on their determination of her condition, Hinson was advised that the delivery of the patient to Burlington Medical Center should be done at a level known as a "Code Two." That procedure involved use of lights located on the ambulance and both lights and siren once the ambulance reached the Burlington city limits. Evidence was adduced that Hinson followed that procedure by activating both the ambulance's flashing red lights and its warning siren.
The district court submitted a special interrogatory to the jury to answer the question whether the ambulance was on an emergency call. The jury answered the interrogatory in the affirmative. Substantial evidence supports this finding that the ambulance driver was responding to an emergency.
The district court instructed the jury that if it found the emergency vehicle was being driven in response to an emergency call, the measure of fault attributable to Hinson to support liability must be based on proof of recklessness. The court analyzed our decision in Morris v. Leaf, 534 N.W.2d 388 (Iowa 1995), and concluded that the recklessness standard adopted there applied to the case at bar.
We have revisited the issue of the standard of care applicable to a driver of an authorized emergency vehicle...
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