Filed Date: 12/6/1976
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
LORING M. BLACK, ESQ. Attorney for the Union Vale Fire District
We acknowledge receipt of your letter containing requests for four legal opinions concerning "immunity" and "protection from suit" of volunteer firemen, including volunteer firemen who are members of an emergency rescue and first aid squad, for their actions, and also the "immunity" and "protection from suit" of emergency medical technicians, for their actions. The questions involve the interrelationship of General Municipal Law §§
General Municipal Law §
Public Health Law §
"* * * a voluntary ambulance service described in subdivision three of section three thousand one of this article and any member thereof who is an emergency medical technician and who voluntarily and without the expectation of monetary compensation renders medical assistance in an emergency to a person who is unconscious, ill or injured shall not be liable for damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained by such person or for damages for the death of such person alleged to have occurred by reason of an act or omission in the rendering of such medical assistance in an emergency unless it is established that such injuries were or such death was caused by gross negligence on the part of such emergency medical technician." (Emphasis supplied.)
For clarity and for the purposes of this opinion, this condition or grant, or the status so created or conferred by the above-mentioned statutes, shall be termed "immunity" and the term immunity, as used herein, applies only where there is no wilfull negligence or malfeasance or gross negligence, as the case may be. The immunity discussed herein exists only in relation to acts authorized by these statutes upon the occasions and conditions therein specified and in places where authorized.
General Municipal Law §
"* * * (1) transporting any sick, injured or disabled person found within the city, town, village or fire district to a hospital clinic, sanatorium or other place for treatment and care and returning any such person therefrom if still sick, injured or disabled and (2) returning any sick, injured or disabled resident of the city, town, village or fire district from a hospital, clinic, sanatorium or other place where such person has received treatment and care."
General Municipal Law §
"* * * so organized, may render services in case of accidents, calamities or other emergencies in connection with which their services may be required, as well as in case of alarms of fire. Whether or not such squads have been organized, any fireman may render service in case of accidents, calamities or other emergencies in connection with which the services of firemen may be required, as well as in case of alarms of fire, unless he shall have been duly ordered not to render such service by the authorities having control of the fire department or company of which he is a member. * * *"
An emergency rescue and first aid squad contemplated by General Municipal Law §
Note that although emergency rescue and first aid squads may be formed by any fire department or fire company, the provision of general ambulance service contemplated in General Municipal Law §
It has been held that when members of various types of squads of a volunteer fire department or company are performing their duties they are performing firemanic duties. 1975 Op. Atty. Gen. 103, 197; 7 Compt. 385 (1951).
This opinion applies to volunteer members of an emergency rescue and first aid squad of a volunteer fire department or fire company and hereafter in this opinion such volunteer members shall be referred to as "members" and such emergency rescue and first aid squads will be referred to as "squads" unless otherwise indicated by the context.
You inquire:
"1. Are the members of a Fire Department Emergency Rescue and First Aid Squad afforded protection against suit under the provisions of Section
205-b , General Municipal Law, whether they are transporting non-emergent patients or transporting patients under emergency conditions?"2. Does a Fire Department Emergency Rescue and First Aid Squad receive immunity from suit under Section
3013 , Public Health Law, or any other law?"3. Does an emergency medical technician not a member of a Fire Department Emergency Rescue and Fire (sic) Aid Squad only receive protection in an emergency situation? (See wording of Section 3001 [7] [sic], which, it might be argued, when read in conjunction with Section 3013 would give an EMT protection when transporting a patient on a non-emergent basis)
"4. Is an emergency medical technician, member of a Fire Department Emergency Rescue and First Aid Squad, protected under the provisions of Section
3013 Public Health Law or under the provisions of 205-b General Municipal Law when, out of his Fire District, he stops to render medical assistance in an emergency? (Say, for example, the EMT is travelling [sic] on the Thruway or the Northway and comes on an automobile accident.)"
In our opinion, the immunity provisions contained in General Municipal Law §
In answer to your first question: In our opinion, all members of duly organized volunteer fire companies, as well as members of squads, have immunity when transporting patients under emergency conditions under the provisions of General Municipal Law §
In answer to your second question: In our opinion, the immunity granted a voluntary ambulance service in Public Health Law §
In answer to your third question: In our opinion, an emergency medical technician who is not a member of a squad has been granted immunity by Public Health Law §
In answer to your fourth question: In our opinion, a certified emergency medical technician, whether or not a member of a squad, has immunity under Public Health Law §