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Lifestar Response of Alabama12/3/2004
Lifestar Response of Alabama, Inc., d/b/a Care Ambulance ("Lifestar") appeals from an order entered on July 31, 2003, by Judge Charles Price (1) overruling Lifestar's motion to set aside a default judgment entered in the case styled "Mildred Lemuel, administratrix of the estate of Darnell Eugene Lemuel, deceased, and Mildred Lemuel, plaintiffs v. Care Ambulance Service of Alabama, Inc., a corporation, etc.," and (2) granting the plaintiff's motion to amend that judgment to substitute Lifestar for Care Ambulance Service of Alabama, Inc. ("Care"). We affirm.
Because the convoluted facts involved in this case control our disposition of the appeal, we recite them in detail.
On November 19, 1998, Lifestar and Care entered into an "Asset Purchase Agreement" pursuant to which Lifestar purchased all of the assets of Care. Care was in the business of operating a basic and advanced life-support ambulance and medical-transportation service. Lifestar identified itself in the agreement as an Alabama corporation having its principal place of business in Holtsville, New York, and Care identified itself as an Alabama corporation having its principal place of business at 939 South Perry Street, Montgomery, Alabama 36104. That location was conveyed to Lifestar in the transaction. Other features of the transaction pertinent to the issues in this case were that "the corporate name 'Care Ambulance Service of Alabama, Inc.' and any derivative thereof in the State of Alabama and East of the Mississippi River and any and all fictitious names used by [Care] and ... telephone numbers and facsimile numbers or pager numbers utilized by [Care]" were sold to Lifestar, and Care agreed to "change its corporate name to a name dissimilar" and to discontinue using the name Care Ambulance Service in the State of Alabama, except as might be required in order to collect accounts receivable generated before the closing of the asset- purchase transaction. Lawrence Branch, a "key employee" who was "in charge of running the day-to-day operation" of Care, was to stay on as an employee of Lifestar for two years.
Care ceased business operations and Lifestar assumed the operation of the ambulance service. Lifestar continued to use the tradename "Care Ambulance Service," advertising itself by that name in the Montgomery area telephone directory, also using the shorter tradename, "Care Ambulance."
On November 8, 2000, Darnell Eugene Lemuel became ill at his home in Montgomery. His wife, Mildred Lemuel, and their daughter, Naquita McDonald, were with him. Late that night Ms. McDonald telephoned emergency "911" and within two or three minutes two employees of "Care Ambulance" arrived. The circumstances of what they did, or omitted to do, on that occasion will be discussed later in this opinion; eventually they transported Mr. Lemuel to Baptist Medical Center South. His condition was critical when he arrived at the hospital, and he was pronounced dead at that facility on November 10.
On November 7, 2002, Ms. Lemuel, both as the administratrix of Mr. Lemuel's estate and in her own right, sued "Care Ambulance Service of Alabama, Inc." and the two employees who had attended to Mr. Lemuel, designated by the fictitious names "ABC" and "DEF." The complaint alleged that Care, "a corporation registered in the State of Alabama with principal place of business at 939 South Perry Street in Montgomery, Alabama," had been contacted after Mr. Lemuel had "passed out" in his house and that, although the responding employees were informed that he was on medication for high blood pressure and diabetes and observed that he was drifting in and out of consciousness, they "made no effort to provide appropriate life support m
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