Court Ruling Clears Way for City to Offer Ambulance Service

Ventura County’s largest ambulance service lost a bid in court Monday to block the city of Ventura from launching its own fleet of ambulances on July 1.

MedTrans Inc. had sued the city in Superior Court, arguing that the Ventura Fire Department would irreparably harm the firm by taking away business from MedTrans’ subsidiary, Pruner Health Services.

MedTrans--charging that Ventura has no legal authority to run its own ambulances and is putting citizens at risk with an untested system--asked the court for an injunction to prevent the city-run ambulance service from starting up.

But Superior Court Judge Joe D. Hadden ruled that MedTrans and Pruner had no standing to even sue.

Pruner operates under contract with Ventura County, which has filed no legal actions to stop the new ambulance service, Hadden told MedTrans attorney James Napoli.

“That contract’s between the county and your client,” Hadden said. “How do we make this leap?”

Napoli replied, “The city’s actions destroy our rights under that contract . . ., and we want the court to declare them in violation of county laws.”

If the Ventura Fire Department starts providing ambulance service, it could cause confusion and delays in response times when calls come near city borders, Napoli said.

“We could be across the street and not be allowed to respond to an emergency because we’re not within the city,” he said.

Ventura city attorneys have argued that state laws allow any city or fire department that was providing “pre-hospital emergency care” before 1980 to continue or even expand that service.

But Napoli said that the Ventura County Board of Supervisors warned that a state Supreme Court case could affect Ventura’s actions.

That case--in which San Bernardino County and a private ambulance provider have sued the city of San Bernardino over its ambulance paramedic program--could ultimately determine the fate of the Ventura Fire Department’s plans, Napoli said.

But attorney Ruthann Ziegler, representing the city of Ventura, pointed out that the two cases are not similar because only MedTrans--and not Ventura County--had sued the city of Ventura. “The county is conspicuous by its absence here,” she said.

What’s more, Ziegler said, the county’s contract with MedTrans lacks the legal power to bind the city to Pruner’s ambulance services.

Hadden agreed, rejecting MedTrans’ request for a court order stopping the Fire Department’s plans.

The department plans to start handling ambulance calls inside city limits at midnight next Monday, said Ventura Fire Chief Dennis Downs.

“I’m elated at the judge’s decision, because this will allow us to move forward,” he said.

MedTrans official Steve Murphy said of Hadden’s ruling, “In the short run, it’s disappointing.

“But we retain the responsibility to be able to resume services within 48 hours’ notice from the city if for any reason the city service should be interrupted or if the Supreme Court were to find against the city [of San Bernardino],” he said.

Murphy said MedTrans has made no decision how and whether to pursue its case further.