Murray v. Plainfield Rescue Squad

Citation210 N.J. 581,46 A.3d 1262
PartiesGeraldine MURRAY and Odis E. Murray (Estate of Odis P. Murray), Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. PLAINFIELD RESCUE SQUAD and John F. Kennedy Medical Center, Defendants–Respondents.
Decision Date17 July 2012
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Luretha M. Stribling, Clark, argued the cause for appellants.

Gerald J. Gunning, Livingston, argued the cause for respondent Plainfield Rescue Squad (Stein McGuire Pantages Gigl, attorneys).

Til J. Dallavalle, West Orange, submitted a brief on behalf of respondent John F. Kennedy Medical Center (Ronan, Tuzzio & Giannone, attorneys; Michael E. McGann, Tinton Falls, of counsel).

Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this wrongful-death/survival action, the Plainfield Rescue Squad is alleged to have unreasonably—and therefore negligently—delayed the transport of a gunshot victim to a nearby hospital, thereby causing his death. The individual members of the Rescue Squad are not the subject of the civil suit. The only issue before this Court is whether N.J.S.A. 26:2K–29 provides immunity to the Rescue Squad as an entity, regardless of any negligent delay in transporting the victim. The trial court found that the Rescue Squad was statutorily immune from suit and therefore entered summary judgment in favor of the Rescue Squad. The Appellate Division affirmed.

We now reverse the dismissal of the wrongful-death/survival claims against the Rescue Squad. Although N.J.S.A. 26:2K–29 states that the “officers and members” of a rescue squad shall not be liable for civil damages in rendering “intermediate life support services in good faith” to a patient, the statute provides no similar immunity to a rescue squad as an entity. A plain-language reading of N.J.S.A. 26:2K–29 leads to the conclusion that on the summary-judgment record before us, the Plainfield Rescue Squad is subject to a civil suit for negligence. Plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to bring this case before a jury. We therefore reinstate the complaint against the Squad and remand to the trial court for further proceedings.

I.
A.

We begin with our standard of review. In construing the meaning of a statute, our review is de novo. Manalapan Realty, L.P. v. Twp. Comm., 140 N.J. 366, 378, 658 A.2d 1230 (1995). We need not defer to the trial court or Appellate Division's interpretative conclusions—particularly if they are mistaken. Zabilowicz v. Kelsey, 200 N.J. 507, 512–13, 984 A.2d 872 (2009). In determining whether summary judgment was properly granted, we apply the same standard governing the trial courtwe view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. See Henry v. N.J. Dep't of Human Servs., 204 N.J. 320, 330, 9 A.3d 882 (2010); Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 142 N.J. 520, 523, 666 A.2d 146 (1995); see also R. 4:46–2(c). The facts in this case are hotly disputed. However, it is not our charge to resolve material facts disputed by the parties; that is a matter for a jury. Because the trial court entered summary judgment against plaintiffs, who are the non-moving parties, we must give plaintiffs the benefit of all favorable evidence and inferences presented in the record before us. See Smith v. Fireworks by Girone, Inc., 180 N.J. 199, 214, 850 A.2d 456 (2004).

Cast in this light, we now turn to the record.

B.

Shortly after 5:00 a.m. on August 4, 2004, twenty-five-year-old Odis P. Murray was shot in the chest by his younger brother outside their home at 418 Parkside Road in Plainfield. Their parents, Geraldine and Odis E. Murray, who were already awake, were alerted by “loud noises” and went outside to investigate. They found their son, Odis, lying in the street behind his car with a gunshot wound in his chest. He was conscious and able to speak and identified his brother as the shooter. Mrs. Murray—a critical-care nurse by profession—immediately returned to her home and called 9–1–1. The time was approximately 5:12 a.m. Three minutes later, a Plainfield police officer appeared on the scene. At 5:16 a.m., a Plainfield Rescue Squad (Rescue Squad or Squad) ambulance—staffed by two Emergency Medical Technicians-basics (EMT-basics) and one volunteer in-training—arrived. A mobile intensive care unit, known as Mercy 9, was dispatched from defendant John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison at 5:13 a.m.1 Mr. and Mrs. Murray averred in certifications and deposition testimony that Mercy 9 never came to the scene.2

Given their status as EMT-basics, the two Rescue Squad members had authority, among other things, to assess vital signs; administer oxygen; manage cardiac, respiratory, and diabetic shock emergencies; perform pulmonary and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); and provide emergency treatment for bleeding and “chest-abdominal-pelvic injuries.” 3N.J.A.C. 8:40A–10.1.

According to the Squad members, the patient did not have a pulse and was “unconscious and not responding to verbal stimuli or painful stimuli.” They began giving him CPR and oxygen through “a bag valve mask,” and then “hooked him to a defibrillator,” which registered ‘no shock advised.’ They then continued performing CPR and ventilation. During this process, Mrs. Murray asked the Squad members why they were not transporting her son to the hospital or intubating him—that is, placing a tube down his larynx to secure an airway. When Mrs. Murray asked those questions, in her opinion, the Squad members “looked at [her] like a deer in headlights.” Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center—the nearest hospital—was only minutes away.

Approximately fifteen minutes after their arrival, the Squad members called for a Medevac helicopter to transport the patient to a hospital. That request was canceled because protocol did not allow for such a transport when a patient is in cardiac arrest. Eventually, Odis—who weighed between 260 and 270 pounds—was secured on a board and placed in the ambulance. Not until 5:47 a.m.—more than thirty minutes after first appearing at the scene—did the Rescue Squad members take the patient to Muhlenberg hospital. On their arrival there, hospital personnel intubated the patient and attempted to insert an intravenous line. Odis, still alive, had an active blood pressure. The bullet had perforated his aorta and severed his spinal cord. By 6:10 a.m., he was pronounced dead. The autopsy report declared the cause of death as [p]enetrating gunshot wound to the chest.”

The Murrays retained as an expert Assistant Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. William L. Manion, who expressed the following opinions in his report. The Rescue Squad members “wasted over 30 minutes at the scene” while performing ineffective CPR, thus depriving the patient of “any chance of surviving his injury.” He needed an immediate transport “to Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center Emergency Room where a surgical trauma team could have opened his chest, stopped blood loss and taken him to the [operating room] for surgical repair.” Although “mortality from injuries to the thoracic aorta is high,” despite the “tremendous delay in transporting” Odis to the hospital, he still “demonstrated a blood pressure of 66/47 and EKG activity in the emergency room.” “Had [the patient] been transported promptly ... he would have had a high degree of probability of surviving the bullet injury.” 4 He essentially died without the benefit of ... surgical and emergency services provided by a professional trauma center only two minutes away.” Dr. Manion concluded that the members of the Squad engaged in “significant deviations from usual standards of rescue squad practice [that] were significant contributing factors to [Odis's] death.” 5

II.
A.

Plaintiffs Geraldine and Odis E. Murray—individually and on behalf of the estate of Odis P. Murray—filed a wrongful-death/survival action against defendants Plainfield Rescue Squad and John F. Kennedy Medical Center, claiming that defendants' negligence proximately caused the death of their son. The complaint alleged that the Rescue Squad's members failed both to provide critical emergency-medical treatments to Odis and to transport him promptly to Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center for life-saving medical intervention. The complaint also alleged that the Mercy 9 paramedics operating out of JFK Medical Center never arrived at the scene or, alternatively, if they did, failed to take necessary life-saving measures, such as starting an intravenous line, intubating the patient, monitoring the patient's cardiac condition, and giving emergency medications. Plaintiffs sought compensatory and punitive damages against defendants.

B.

The trial court granted JFK Medical Center's motion for summary judgment, finding that the hospital was protected by the immunity provision of N.J.S.A. 26:2K–14, which shields mobile intensive care paramedics from liability for acts or omissions “in rendering of advanced life support services in good faith.” The court determined that there was an insufficient showing that the paramedics of Mercy 9 did not act in good faith in treating the victim or that their failure to arrive timely was the proximate cause of the patient's death.6

In response to a series of motions, including a motion for reconsideration, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the Plainfield Rescue Squad. The court found the Rescue Squad immune under two statutes, the “Good Samaritan Act,” N.J.S.A. 2A:62A–1,7 and N.J.S.A. 26:2K–29 (providing immunity for acts or omissions “committed ... in rendering of intermediate life support services in good faith”). Without distinguishing between the two statutes, the court concluded that plaintiffs failed to make an adequate showing that the Squad members did not act in good faith. On the reconsideration motion, the court also rejected plaintiffs' argument that, because the members of the Rescue Squad were EMT-basics, N.J.S.A. 26:2K–29 did not apply to them. The court noted that although N.J.S.A. 26:2K–29 provides immunity for...

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