WILLIAMSPORT – Northumberland County, its government and medical first responders have motioned to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit from a local couple, which alleged that collective negligence on their parts led to a delayed response in receiving emergency medical care, and their daughter’s subsequent stillborn condition and death.
Chad Reiner and Stephanie Reiner (individually and as Administrators of the Estate of Paisley Reiner, deceased) of Pitman first filed suit in the Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas on Feb. 28 versus Northumberland County, the Northumberland County Board of Commissioners and Russell Fellman of Sunbury, Commissioners Samuel J. Schiccatano, Joseph M. Klebon and Kymberley L. Best of Coal Township and Community Life Team, Inc., of Harrisburg.
The suit stated that on Sept. 23, 2022, Stephanie Reiner was approximately 32 weeks pregnant with Paisley Reiner, became ill and called 911 at or around 3:22 p.m.
The suit continued that due to a delay in the ambulance’s arrival, among other things, Stephanie Reiner suffered physical injuries and damages and Paisley Reiner was delivered stillborn – and that prior to Sept. 23, 2022, the 911 Center’s new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system did not match the station order of the previous Northumberland CAD system.
As a result of this and Fellman having allegedly failed to ensure that the CAD station order was correct and dispatched the closest emergency services prior to Paisley Reiner’s death, Hegins and Area Services ambulance squads were not called to the Reiner residence on Sept. 23, 2022, despite being located closer than the ambulance that actually arrived at their home.
The plaintiffs claimed the defendants failed to provide plaintiffs with emergency medical care; failed to appropriately dispatch an ambulance; failed to contact an ambulance that was in service and available; failed to appropriately staff the 911 Center; failed to train 911 employees; failed to ensure that the 911 Center employees were qualified; abandoned a known duty to train the 911 Center dispatcher; failed to supervise the 911 Center dispatchers; abandoned a duty to supervise 911 Center dispatchers; failed to address a pattern of behavior by 911 Center dispatchers that resulted in harm to the public; failed to address the need for more or different training of 911 Center dispatchers; failed to address the need for more or different supervision of 911 Center dispatchers; violated plaintiffs’ constitutional rights and created a policy or custom or practice that led to the deprivation of a constitutional right.
The defendants opted to remove the action to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on March 21, before motioning to dismiss the case for failure to state claims upon which relief could be granted on March 27.
“All of plaintiffs’ assertions against the Northumberland County defendants sound in negligence and not constitutional violations. Plaintiffs assert that the Northumberland County defendants are liable for their ‘negligence, gross negligence, reckless indifference and/or deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of’ Stephanie Reiner and Paisley Reiner. Counts I and II must be dismissed for lack of factual specificity and personal involvement as to the Northumberland County defendants. Counts I and II should be dismissed since the Third Circuit has held that ‘there is no federal constitutional right to rescue services, competent or otherwise [and] moreover, because the Due Process Clause does not require the State to provide rescue services, it follows that we cannot interpret that clause so as to place an affirmative obligation on the State to provide competent rescue services if it chooses to provide them,” the motion to dismiss stated, in part.
“Schiccatano, Klebon, Best and Fellman are entitled to either absolute immunity or qualified immunity and should be dismissed as defendants. The Monell claim should be dismissed since merely employing a tortfeasor is insufficient to establish Section 1983 liability against a municipality. The Monell claim should be dismissed because plaintiffs failed to properly plead an underlying constitutional violation. The Monell claim should be dismissed because plaintiffs failed to plead a permanent and well-settled custom that has a direct causal link to the harm sustained by plaintiffs. The Monell claim based upon must be dismissed since plaintiff failed to identify specific training that was that would have prevented the harm. Northumberland County Board of Commissioners should be dismissed because it is not a separate entity capable of being sued. Northumberland County Board of Commissioners should be dismissed because any cause of action against the Board is redundant. The negligence and gross negligence causes of action should be dismissed because they do not fall under any exception to the Pennsylvania Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act.”
For multiple counts of violating the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, gross negligence, survival and wrongful death, the plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $75,000, plus interest and costs.
The plaintiffs are represented by Franklin E. Kepner Jr. and Franklin E. Kepner III of Kepner Kepner & Corba, in Berwick.
The defendants are represented by Christine E. Munion of William Devlin & Associates in Blue Bell, plus Thomas M. Chairs of Gordon & Rees, in Harrisburg.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 4:24-cv-00493
Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas case CV-2024-00307
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com