Ambulance firm’s suit to proceed

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, March 14, 2000 | 10:47 a.m.

Clark County attorneys were hardly fazed Monday after a district judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit by the county's ambulance service, American Medical Response.

"It's really no big deal," said Victor W. Priebe, a deputy district attorney for Clark County. "The judge dealt with a procedural motion to dismiss and denied the motion without comment on substantive issues of the case."

The judge's ruling clears the way for the lawsuit against Clark County, which will determine whether Southwest Ambulance will be allowed to compete with AMR before AMR's franchise expires in 2003.

The suit, filed in December by AMR representatives, says the county violated its franchise code when it accepted Southwest Ambulance's Dec. 7 application to start providing competing emergency service.

AMR attorney Paul Larsen has argued that to enter the ambulance market before AMR's contract expires, Southwest Ambulance is required to demonstrate a need for two services.

AMR's lawsuit also pointed out that Southwest has no ambulance equipment except for two demonstration vehicles.

County officials have argued that the lawsuit was premature, because it has only accepted Southwest's application. The county is negotiating with Southwest and has not given the firm final approval.

In January District Judge James Mahan granted Southwest permission to submit a motion to dismiss the case.

After a 45-minute hearing Monday, Mahan ruled that to grant Southwest's motion, the ambulance company would have had to prove AMR had no facts to back its claim. That burden was not met.

Priebe said AMR has 21 days to submit its case through briefs to the judge. The county will be permitted another 21 days to file its arguments and AMR attorneys will be given seven days to respond. The case won't be heard by the judge for about two months.

"We were hoping he would dismiss it out of hand, because we don't think it has merit," John Wilson, executive partner of Southwest Ambulance, said.

The legal action has not prevented Southwest representatives Wilson and Sharon Henry from negotiating with Clark County, North Las Vegas and Las Vegas. Wilson said it also will not stop the company from beginning service as soon as summer.

Skeen said the court's denial of Southwest's motion proves AMR has a solid claim. But more importantly, Skeen said, the judge will determine the definition of a nonexclusive contract -- the agreement AMR has held with the county since 1996.

AMR officials believe the contract can only become nonexclusive when it is clear AMR can no longer handle the number of calls in Clark County and there is a need for a second ambulance service.

Southwest, however, has argued that nonexclusive means any company can apply to enter the market at any time.

"I'm pleased the judge kept that issue out there. It's good for all parties," Skeen said. "It's important for anyone who enters a contract with government. It's important for them to know they have some security in making investments."

Skeen said AMR assumed it would be the sole ambulance provider in the Las Vegas Valley until 2003 and has invested more than $10 million in its dispatch center and office complex on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Wilson said Southwest's first joint meeting with all three local jurisdictions will be March 27.

The company's application was accepted by all three jurisdictions. The Clark County Commission and North Las Vegas will allow Southwest to compete with AMR for both nonemergency and emergency transport calls. Southwest will handle only nonemergency calls for Las Vegas.