Flood v. Silfies

• Decision Date: 02 October 2007
• Citation: 933 A.2d 1072
• Parties: Daniel FLOOD and Ann Flood, Individually and as Parent and Natural Guardians of Lauren Flood, a Minor, Appellants v. Matthew SILFIES and Ronald Meckes and Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Company.
• Court: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court

933 A.2d 1072

Daniel FLOOD and Ann Flood, Individually and as Parent and Natural Guardians of Lauren Flood, a Minor, Appellants v. Matthew SILFIES and Ronald Meckes and Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Company.

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued September 6, 2007.

Decided October 2, 2007.

Thomas F. Sacchetta, Media, for appellants.

Stephanie L. Hersperger, Harrisburg, for appellee.

BEFORE: COLINS, Judge, and LEAVITT, Judge, and McCLOSKEY, Senior Judge.

OPINION BY Senior Judge McCLOSKEY.

Daniel Flood and Ann Flood, individually and as parents and natural guardians of Lauren Flood, a minor (Appellants), appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County (trial court), which granted a motion for summary judgment filed by Appellees Matthew Silfies (Silfies), Ronald Meckes (Meckes) and Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Company (the Volunteer Fire Company), thereby dismissing on the basis of governmental immunity a civil action filed against them for allegedly negligent emergency care. Silfies and Meckes are emergency medical technicians (EMT's) with the Volunteer Fire Company. We now affirm.

Appellants filed a complaint against Silfies, Meckes and the Volunteer Fire Company, seeking damages resulting from birth defects allegedly suffered by Lauren Flood as a result of allegedly negligent emergency care rendered by Appellees on April 23, 2003. (R.R. at 114a-127a). Appellants aver in their complaint that on that date, Appellees responded to a 911 call at the Flood residence, where they found Mrs. Flood lying in bed bleeding from the vagina and suffering abdominal pain. Id. She was thirty-seven (37) weeks pregnant at the time. Id. Instead of using a stretcher, they instructed her to walk, under her own power, down the stairs and into the waiting ambulance. Id. While on the way to the hospital, they did not administer any treatment to her, not even oxygen. Id. Appellees did not notify the hospital that she was being transported to it. Id. Upon arrival at the hospital, a caesarean section was performed on Mrs. Flood, and her daughter, Lauren, was born. Id. Mrs. Flood's pre-delivery condition was diagnosed as placental abruption, which caused extensive brain damage to Lauren, who now suffers from seizures and other physical and emotional problems. Id. Appellants essentially allege that Appellees failed to properly diagnose and treat Mrs. Flood, thereby increasing the risk and severity of harm to Lauren.

Appellees filed a motion for summary judgment, in which the Volunteer Fire Company and Silfies and Meckes claim that the action should be dismissed on the basis of immunity. Specifically, they allege that they are immune under Subchapter C of Chapter 85 of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 8541-8564 (the PSTCA),¹ because the Volunteer Fire Company is a "local agency" under the PSTCA. The PSTCA grants "local agencies" and their employees immunity. Silfies and Meckes also claim that they are immune under the Emergency Medical Services Act, Act of July 3, 1985, P.L. 164, as amended, 35 P.S. §§ 6921-6938 (the EMSA), or the nonmedical good Samaritan civil immunity provision of 42 Pa.C.S. § 8332, because Appellants failed to plead the gross negligence required to overcome the immunity afforded under those provisions. By opinion and order dated December 8, 2006, the trial court granted Appellees' motion for summary judgment, concluding that Appellees are entitled to immunity under the PSTCA. Appellants appealed the matter to this Court.²

On appeal,³ Appellants argue that the trial court erred when it granted Appellees' motion for summary judgment based upon immunity where genuine issues of material fact exist as to whether the Volunteer Fire Company is a "local agency" for purposes of the PSTCA.

A motion for summary judgment may be granted only when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Bronson v. Horn, 830 A.2d 1092 (Pa.Cmwlth.2003), affirmed, 577 Pa. 653, 848 A.2d 917 (2004), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 944, 125 S.Ct. 369, 160 L.Ed.2d 257 (2004). The right to judgment must be clear and free from doubt. Id. In reviewing the granting of a motion for summary judgment, this Court must "view the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, and all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue of material fact must be resolved against the moving party." Pappas v. Asbel, 564 Pa. 407, 418, 768 A.2d 1089, 1095 (2001), cert. denied, sub nom., U.S. Healthcare Systems of Pennsylvania, Inc., v. Pennsylvania Hospital Insurance Company, 536 U.S. 938, 122 S.Ct. 2618, 153 L.Ed.2d 802 (2002).

Section 8541 of the PSTCA, relating to governmental immunity, provides that "no local agency shall be liable for any damages on account of any injury to a person or property caused by any act of the local agency or an employee thereof or any other person."⁴ 42 Pa.C.S. § 8541. Limited and narrow exceptions exist to the immunity granted by Section 8541 of the PSTCA.⁵ See 42 Pa.C.S. § 8542. Section 8545 of the PSTCA, relating to official liability, further provides that "[a]n employee of a local agency is liable for civil damages on account of any injury to a person or property caused by acts of the employee which are within the scope of his office or duties only to the same extent as his employing local agency and subject to the limitations imposed by this subchapter." 42 Pa.C.S. § 8545.

In Wilson v. Dravosburg Volunteer Fire Department No. 1, 101 Pa.Cmwlth. 284, 516 A.2d 100 (1986), this Court unequivocally interpreted the term "local agency" under the PSTCA to include volunteer fire companies as a government unit entitled to immunity. In so doing, we recognized that volunteer fire companies, in the performance of public firefighting duties, exist as an entity acting on the behalf of local government units. Wilson. This conclusion was supported by the historical, structural relationship existing between volunteer fire companies and the local municipalities and the citizenry they serve. Wilson.

This Court reached a similar result in Weaver v. Union City Volunteer Fire Department, 102 Pa.Cmwlth. 298, 518 A.2d 7 (1986), wherein we considered whether a volunteer fire company was immune from liability under the PSTCA for damages to property that arose as a result of firefighting training exercises. We concluded that the Union City volunteer fire company was entitled to immunity under the PSTCA because its firefighting training exercise was within the scope of its public firefighting duties.

In Guinn v. Alburtis Fire Company, 531 Pa. 500, 502, 614 A.2d 218, 219 n. 2 (1992), our Supreme Court similarly stated that "a volunteer fire company created pursuant to relevant law and recognized as the official fire company for a political subdivision is a local agency." In Guinn, the Supreme Court expanded the immunity further than this Court had in Weaver, when it stated that volunteer fire companies are entitled to governmental immunity even when they are not engaged in fire-fighting activities. The Supreme Court concluded in Guinn that a volunteer fire company was entitled to governmental immunity for serving alcohol to an individual who was visibly intoxicated and thereafter was struck and injured by a motor vehicle when he was walking home.

Appellants argue that the Supreme Court's opinion in Sphere Drake Insurance Company v. Philadelphia Gas Works, 566 Pa. 541, 782 A.2d 510 (2001), changed the straight-forward analysis previously set forth in Guinn. In Sphere Drake, the Supreme Court considered whether a nonprofit corporation, PFMC, incorporated by city officials to provide management services for a city-owned gas works provider, was a "local agency" entitled to immunity under the PSTCA. The trial court, relying upon our decision in Modern Shoppers World Mt. Airy Corporation v. Philadelphia Gas Works, 164 Pa.Cmwlth. 257, 643 A.2d 136 (en banc), petition for allowance of appeal denied, sub nom., Granite State Insurance Company v. Philadelphia Gas Works, 539 Pa. 683, 652 A.2d 1327 (1994),⁶ concluded that PFMC was not a local agency for purposes of PSTCA immunity. We affirmed. The Supreme Court granted Philadelphia Gas Works' petition for allowance of appeal, and it considered the question of whether a non-profit corporation created by a political subdivision is immune from liability under the PSTCA. The Supreme Court rejected this Court's notion that PFMC's status as a non-profit corporation required that it be deemed not an agency of the city. Ultimately, the Supreme Court concluded that, pursuant to the plain language of the PSTCA, PFMC was entitled to governmental immunity.

The Supreme Court in Sphere Drake overruled our decision in Modern Shoppers World, opining that it was problematic for several reasons. First and most importantly, the Supreme Court rejected this Court's conclusion in Modern Shoppers World that only "traditional units of government" fall within the meaning of "local authority." The Supreme Court noted that such a conclusion was squarely at odds with the actual definition of "local authority" contained in the Statutory Construction Act of 1972, the overall purpose of the PSTCA,⁷ and with prior decisions of the Commonwealth Court which extended immunity to other non-profit corporations incorporated by a city or municipality.⁸ The Supreme Court noted that to the extent that statutory construction beyond the plain meaning of the PSTCA need be considered at all, "it is the public control of an entity, its public function, and the effect on public administration and the public purse that is reflected in the definitional scheme" and that should guide a court in its judgment. Sphere Drake, 566 Pa. at 549, 782 A.2d at 515.

Thereafter, in Christy v. Cranberry Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Inc., 579 Pa. 404, 856 A.2d 43 (2004), the Supreme Court reiterated the need for a multi-factorial approach as espoused in Sphere...