The Missouri Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal in a lawsuit brought by the Howard County Ambulance District against the City of Fayette. The decision effectively upholds a ruling from Judge Cynthia Suter of the Circuit Court of Howard County, which found on July 26, 2017, that the city is not required to pay fees charged by the ambulance district during a 2011 incident, because no contract exists between the two entities.

The decision by the Missouri Supreme Court was announced July 3.

An appeal was heard by the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District which ruled in favor of the City of Fayette in February of this year.

The case began in 2011 when reserve Fayette police officer Matt Jones arrested an intoxicated minor, later identified as Lance Brown who was 17 at the time. Due to his extreme level of intoxication, it was determined Brown required medical attention. He was transported to Cooper County Hospital in Boonville via Howard County Ambulance.

According to court records, Officer Jones spoke to Brown’s mother, Janice Brown, over the phone. He testified that he told Janice Brown that her son was intoxicated and would be transferred to a hospital. Jones said that Janice Brown had consented to the transport.

Jones also testified that Janice Brown never arrived at the scene, nor offered to take her son to the hospital.

However, Janice Brown testified that she told police during that phone call that she would take her son to the hospital, but was told by Jones that if she takes him, he would be arrested. Therefore he was taken Cooper County Hospital by ambulance.

The total cost of the transport to the hospital was $1,266.01.

The Howard County Ambulance District later sued Janice Brown and the City of Fayette for the payment of $1,266.01.

The court found in favor of the ambulance district against Janice Brown for the total amount, but not against the City of Fayette.

According to court records, there was never any demand to the city for payment for transportation, and Officer Jones had released Lance Brown out of handcuffs to go in the ambulance.

Attorney Frank R. Flaspohler argued that the Howard County Ambulance District has an ordinance in place from January of 2007 that provides that whether an individual is arrested or not, and the person becomes injured, and an ambulance is dispatched, the police entity who detained the individual is responsible for the medical care.

However, City of Fayette attorney at the time, Cullen Cline, told the court that no written contract existed between the city and the ambulance district. City manager Robin Triplett testified that there was never any contract, and that until the lawsuit, there had never been a demand by the ambulance district for the costs.

Judge Suter ruled that the ambulance district failed to prove that a contract existed.

Although not held liable for the ambulance costs, the city neverless racked up a total of $12,173.50 in attorneys fees to defend itself. One may think this is an excessive amount of money to fight a bill of only $1,266.01. However, current attorney for the city, Cydney Mayfield, who represented Fayette in front of the Missouri Court of Appeals, told this newspaper that the city didn’t have a choice. It had to defend itself.

“This could have been a major ordeal all across the state,” she said. “The Western District Court of Appeals did the right thing.”

The ruling, she said, sets a precedence on favor of the city. “This case had enormous potential consequence for the City of Fayette.”

According to Triplett, the entirety of the $12,173.50 in legal fees was paid out of the general revenue. Which means the tax payers footed the bill.

Although no official figure was acquired before this newspaper went to press, it was estimated the Howard County Ambulance District spent a little more than $1,000 on the case. Although it had help from Missouri Ambulance Association attorney Frank Foster, who, in court records, is listed as co-council to Flaspohler.

The ambulance district is no stranger to litigation. So far in 2018 Flaspohler has filed 29 lawsuits against individuals on behalf of the district resulting in more than $14,000 in awarded judgements. Eight of these cases were dismissed by the court without prejudice and nine are still active.