SANTA ANA : Ambulance Company to Try Again in Court

A private ambulance company on Thursday failed to win a court order preventing Orange officials from starting their own emergency ambulance service, but will be back in court next week to try again.

Superior Court Judge Robert Jameson denied the request for a restraining order from CareLine California without comment.

The increasingly bitter dispute started in July when the Orange Fire Department proposed taking over emergency ambulance services from CareLine and another company, saying city firefighters could cut response times and raise money for the city. The Santa Ana-based company filed suit earlier this month to stop the plan, which started Wednesday, six days ahead of schedule.

Lawyers for CareLine said the early start took them by surprise, prompting the hearing Thursday. They will seek a temporary injunction halting the city plan during a court hearing Tuesday.

The early start date was designed to improve the city’s chance of denying CareLine’s legal request next week because the Fire Department ambulances would already be in operation, said acting City Manager David L. Rudat.

The city had to borrow used ambulances from Santa Ana after another ambulance company, fearful of being sued by CareLine, pulled its fleet at the last minute, Rudat said.

CareLine officials said the court action Thursday was not a setback.

“Today was pretty much just a minor skirmish as a prelude to Tuesday’s hearing,” company spokesman Byron de Arakal said. “This was like batting practice.”

The company’s attorneys are arguing that the city failed to obey its municipal code by not following a competitive bidding process for the ambulance service. City attorneys counter that the city has to seek bids only if it contracts out for the service, not if it decides to run the program in-house.

Assistant City Atty. Wayne Winthers said the city’s position is supported by a recent appellate court ruling affirming another Southern California city’s right to run an ambulance service in-house.