Opinion ID: 4034251
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Discovery of Earlier Incidents of Abuse

Text: As part of pretrial discovery in the Herring litigation, other former patients were contacted and interviewed about their ambulance transport experiences with AMR in general and with Haszard in particular. That process revealed that additional women—including the six plaintiffs in this case—had been inappropriately touched by Haszard during ambulance transport.
The first incident occurred in February 2006 and involved Spain, who awoke from unconsciousness in the back of an AMR ambulance to find Haszard pressing her hand on his crotch and rocking back and forth. She later called a business number for AMR and told the receptionist that the paramedic was a “freak” who had inappropriately touched her, that it was unsafe for that paramedic to transport little girls, and that he should be taken off ambulance duty. When asked, the receptionist declined to provide Spain with the paramedic’s name. Spain’s sister witnessed the phone call and later recalled that Spain had told her that the receptionist had hung up on Spain. AMR, which had in place a regular process for han- dling ambulance staff complaints, had no record of the telephone call from Spain. 216 Wyers v. American Medical Response Northwest, Inc.
A month later, in March 2006, AMR sent custom- ers a survey. One of those customers, Whalen, reported in her survey that Haszard had failed to respect her privacy at the hospital by not looking away while a nursing assistant helped her into a gown, despite her obvious discomfort. One of AMR’s supervisors investigated the complaint by interviewing both Whalen and Haszard. During that interview, Whalen told the supervisor that Haszard had stared at her and acted sexually aroused, but she made no complaint about any unwanted touching. She later recalled that the supervisor had “dismissed everything that [she had] said,” telling her that she “must have been imagining things.” The supervisor, however, did write an internal report recounting Whalen’s complaint that Haszard had not shown sufficient consideration for her privacy and concluding that Whalen’s complaint had been “substantiated.”
In April 2006, Akre was transported by an AMR ambulance attended by Haszard. She had trouble breathing, was choking, and feared for her life. During her transport, Haszard repeatedly brushed her bare chest while placing leads on her. She was afraid to tell Haszard to stop, because she thought that Haszard would harm her. She did not report the incident to AMR or to anyone else.
In December 2006, Rotting was transported by AMR ambulance with Haszard attending. During the transport, Haszard touched Rotting in a manner similar to the sexual touching that plaintiff Akre had described. He also slowly stroked Rotting’s thigh. Rotting reported the incident to a nurse and to family members. Her son called AMR and spoke with the same supervisor who had investigated the Whalen complaint. The supervisor then called Rotting and told her that there would be an investigation. The investigation, however, was limited to interviewing Haszard, who denied having engaged in any inappropriate conduct. Rotting’s son later called AMR again, this time stating that the police should be involved. AMR took no further action, Cite as 360 Or 211 (2016) 217 although its risk management department was internally notified that Rotting might file a complaint.
In January 2007, plaintiff Shaftel was transported by AMR ambulance, attended by Haszard. While Shaftel went in and out of consciousness in the ambulance, Haszard repeatedly touched her bare chest. About three weeks later, plaintiff Asbury, age 73, also was sexually touched by Haszard during an ambulance transport. And three weeks after that, plaintiff Terpening, who was hearing impaired, was also.1 None of those three women reported Haszard’s conduct to AMR, the police, or hospital staff.
In March 2007, Pries reported to police that Haszard had sexually abused her during an ambulance transport by taking her hand, placing it inside her pants, and manipulating it. Police spoke with an AMR supervisor about the incident. Several AMR employees, including Haszard, then met with a company risk-management official. AMR ultimately determined that it could not substantiate Pries’s allegations, but it warned Haszard in writing that either that incident or the earlier Rotting incident would be reopened if more information came to light. AMR did not make any effort to contact Pries, did not request any further information from the police, and did not tell police about the Rotting complaint from the previous year.
In April 2007, Haszard sexually touched plaintiff Webb during an ambulance transport, while she went in and out of consciousness. Four months after that, Haszard also sexually touched plaintiff Corning, then 86, during a transport. Neither plaintiff Webb nor plaintiff Corning reported the incidents to AMR, and the company did not learn about them until discovery in the Herring litigation. C. Initiation and Disposition Below of Plaintiffs’ Claims Plaintiffs Akre, Shaftel, Asbury, Terpening, Webb, and Corning individually brought civil actions against AMR 1 Terpening is now deceased. Plaintiff Wyers serves as the personal representative of her estate. 218 Wyers v. American Medical Response Northwest, Inc. for permitting another person—Haszard—to sexually abuse them, in violation of ORS 124.100. Each of their complaints alleged that AMR knew or had reason to know that Haszard had physically abused ill or injured female patients in the past and that he was likely to do so in the future if allowed to be alone with them in the back of an ambulance. Their complaints further alleged that AMR nonetheless directed Haszard to continue to work in those circumstances, resulting in their abuse. The six cases were consolidated for trial. AMR moved for summary judgment, arguing that, to establish liability under ORS 124.100(5), plaintiffs must produce evidence that it either participated in or knowingly permitted Haszard to commit the specific acts of abuse that were the bases for plaintiffs’ claims. In this case, AMR argued, it is undisputed that it had no knowledge of any of those acts of abuse before they occurred. Plaintiffs responded that ORS 124.100(5) does not require proof of actual knowledge of their abuse. They argued that, instead, the statute requires only that AMR acted or failed to act when it should have known that such abuse was likely to occur and that, in light of earlier complaints about Haszard, AMR should have known that he was likely to abuse them. The trial court agreed with AMR, concluding that the statute requires proof that AMR “had knowledge of the specific abuse that    Haszard allegedly committed on each [p]laintiff.” Finding an absence of evidence that AMR had been aware of Haszard’s abuse of plaintiffs until long after that abuse had occurred, the court granted AMR’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed plaintiffs’ claims. Plaintiffs appealed, and the Court of Appeals reversed. Wyers, 268 Or App at 255. That court reasoned that ORS 124.100(5) did not require plaintiffs to establish that AMR subjectively knew that Haszard was engaging in misconduct with plaintiffs at the time that that misconduct was occurring. Id. at 246-47. Rather, that statute required only that AMR “have knowledge of facts establishing that it knew of the substantial risk of the abuse actually suffered.” Id. at 247. The court ultimately concluded that a defendant “permit[s]” the abuse at issue if the defendant either “acted or failed to act with knowledge that would lead a reasonable Cite as 360 Or 211 (2016) 219 person to conclude that the plaintiff was being abused or would likely be abused in the manner alleged by the plaintiff.” Id. Applying that standard to this case, the court determined that plaintiffs had presented “sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror could find that [AMR had] ‘permitted’ Haszard to sexually abuse plaintiffs.” Id. at 255. We allowed review to address the parties’ arguments about the meaning of the requirements set out in ORS 124.100(5).