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Morris v. Rockingham County5/17/2005
John Carter and John Murphy, paramedics for Rockingham County Emergency Medical Services, transported Charles Morris (plaintiff) by ambulance from Eden Morehead Hospital in Rockingham County to North Carolina Baptist Hospital (Baptist Hospital) in ForsythCounty. At Baptist Hospital, while the paramedics were removing the stretcher carrying plaintiff, the head of the stretcher bounced off a stair of the ambulance and hit the ground.
Plaintiff filed an action for negligence and medical malpractice in Forsyth County. Plaintiff named as defendants the two paramedics, Rockingham County, and Rockingham County Emergency Medical Services (collectively defendants). Specifically, plaintiff alleged that he suffered multiple cervical disc ruptures and required surgery as a result of the stretcher being dropped by defendant paramedics. Defendants filed a motion for change of venue to Rockingham County. In an order entered 29 January 2004, the trial court denied the motion. Defendants appeal.
Although defendants' appeal is interlocutory, we have previously held that "a denial of a motion to transfer venue affects a substantial right." Hyde v. Anderson, 158 N.C. App. 307, 309, 580 S.E.2d 424, 425 (citing Thompson v. Norfolk S. Ry. Co., 140 N.C. App. 115, 121-22, 535 S.E.2d 397, 401 (2000)), disc. review denied, 357 N.C. 459, 585 S.E.2d 759 (2003). The trial court's order is immediately appealable and properly before us.
An action " against a public officer or person especially appointed to execute his duties, for an act done by him by virtue of his office; or against a person who by his command or in his aid does anything touching the duties of such officer[,]" must be filed "in the county where the cause, or some part thereof, arose[.]" N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-77 (2003). In considering such actions, the following two questions must be addressed: "(1) Is defendant a'public officer or person especially appointed to execute his duties'? (2) In what county did the cause of action in suit arise?" Coats v. Hospital, 264 N.C. 332, 333, 141 S.E.2d 490, 491 (1965). In the present case, plaintiff and defendants only dispute in which county the cause of action arose, and accordingly, in which county venue is proper.
Defendants argue that the proper venue in this case is Rockingham County. Defendants assert that because the action is against a county and its public officers for the performance of an official duty, the action is local in nature, and the proper venue is the county in which the public officials perform their official duties. See Powell v. Housing Authority, 251 N.C. 812, 816, 112 S.E.2d 386, 389 (1960) (" ll public officers, when sued about their official acts, should be sued in the county where they transact their official business."). Defendants emphasize that the purpose underlying N.C.G.S. § 1-77 "is to avoid requiring public officers to 'forsake their civic duties and attend the courts of a distant forum.'" Wells v. Cumberland Cty. Hosp. Sys., Inc., 150 N.C. App. 584, 587, 564 S.E.2d 74, 76 (2002) (quoting Coats, 264 N.C. at 333, 141 S.E.2d at 491). Defendants contend the paramedics were acting in their official capacity as emergency medical technicians for Rockingham County Emergency Medical Services, which is a Rockingham County agency. Defendants thus argue that Rockingham County is the only proper venue because all of the parties are citizens or entities residing solely in Rockingham County. However, in the cases cited by defendants, the cause of action arose and occurred within the county that was being sued. By contrast, in the present case, the cause of action arose not in the county being sued, but in Forsyth County. Our Supreme Court has held that venue is pro
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