Cynthia S. Woodall v. AAA Ambulance Service, Inc.

Summary

The Mississippi Supreme Court held that AAA Ambulance Service, Inc. was an instrumentality of governmental entities and therefore entitled to protection under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. Because the wrongful-death complaint was filed after the Act’s one-year statute of limitations, the court affirmed summary judgment for the defendants.

Holdings

1. AAA was an instrumentality of governmental entities because governmental entities wholly owned it and exercised substantial control over both its strategic and day-to-day operations. AAA therefore was entitled to protection under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act.
2. The contractual provisions describing AAA as an independent contractor did not defeat instrumentality status because the governmental entities owned AAA and overwhelmingly controlled its operations.
3. AAA's 1998 letter asserting that it was not a governmental entity or political subdivision did not create a genuine issue of material fact because the letter predated the controlling instrumentality analysis and instrumentality status is a legal question reviewed de novo.
4. Summary judgment was proper because the Mississippi Tort Claims Act supplied the exclusive civil remedy, imposed a one-year statute of limitations, and Woodall filed her complaint outside that limitations period.

Questions Presented

1. Whether AAA Ambulance Service, Inc. was an instrumentality of governmental entities and therefore entitled to protection under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act.
2. Whether the alleged contractual language describing AAA as an independent contractor defeated its status as a governmental instrumentality.
3. Whether the prior position expressed by AAA's counsel in a 1998 letter created a genuine issue of material fact concerning AAA's instrumentality status.

Disposition

affirmed