Fall from an ambulance gurney; Governmental immunity; The Governmental Tort Liability Act (GTLA); The motor-vehicle exception (MCL 691.1405); Chandler v County of Muskegon; Martin v Rapid Inter-Urban Transit P’ship; Strozier v Flint Cmty Schs; Applicability of the Emergency Medical Services Act (EMSA); Bartalsky v Osborn; Emergency medical technicians (EMTs)

The court held that the trial court erred in applying the EMSA, and that plaintiff-Winters stated a claim under the motor-vehicle exception to governmental immunity. Thus, it reversed summary disposition for defendant-City and remanded. Winters was injured when he fell to the ground as EMTs unloaded the gurney he was on from the ambulance. He sued the City for negligence. It sought summary disposition based on governmental immunity under the GTLA. The trial court, rather than analyzing his claim under the GTLA, applied the EMSA, and ruled that he “failed to establish gross negligence or willful misconduct as required to avoid summary disposition under the EMSA.” On appeal, the City agreed with Winters that the EMSA did not apply, and so did the court. Rather, the GTLA applied. Winters alleged “that the City’s EMTs strapped him onto a gurney for transport and negligently ‘failed to keep the gurney upright’ which caused him to fall to the ground and sustain injury while the EMTs unloaded him from the ambulance. [He] also alleged that the City had a duty to ensure that its employees safely unload patients from an ambulance and that the City was liable for its own negligence, and that of the EMTs, because the City owned the ambulance. Winters cited the owner’s liability statute, MCL 257.401.” The court held that his “allegations were sufficient to plead in avoidance of governmental immunity because they stated a claim” within the motor-vehicle exception. The court noted this “exception requires that the governmental agency owned the motor vehicle involved in the incident and that the plaintiff’s injuries resulted from the negligent operation of the vehicle by the governmental agency’s employees. Further, as in Martin, the loading and unloading of patients is an action within the operation of an ambulance. Indeed, similar to the garbage truck in Strozier, it is impossible for an ambulance to perform its intended function absent the loading and unloading of patients.”