## Facts

- An ambulance company operating for compensation transported members of the public needing ambulance service in Orange County, Florida.
- Ruth Ann Nazareth’s husband arranged and paid for her ambulance transport from their home to a hospital.
- The ambulance was staffed by an emergency medical technician (Barrett) and a female attendant; at Barrett’s suggestion, the attendant drove while Barrett remained with Nazareth in the patient compartment.
- Nazareth was ill, vomiting, and strapped to a stretcher, and alleged she was too weak to resist.
- Nazareth alleged Barrett sexually assaulted and battered her during the transport.
- Nazareth reported the incident upon arrival; later that evening, she and her husband confronted Barrett, and Nazareth alleged he admitted the assault.
- Nazareth sued the ambulance company, asserting theories including vicarious liability, breach of an implied contract to safely transport a paying passenger, negligence, and punitive damages.

## Issues

1. Whether an ambulance service transporting a paying passenger may be treated as a common carrier owing a heightened duty of care.
2. Whether the company could face trial on vicarious liability for an employee’s alleged sexual assault committed during passenger transport, notwithstanding ordinary “scope of employment” limits.
3. Whether arranging and paying for ambulance transport created an implied contract of safe carriage, and whether the alleged assault could support a breach-of-contract claim.
4. Whether summary judgment was proper on the negligence and punitive-damages theories against the company.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed summary judgment for the company on Nazareth’s general negligence and punitive-damages theories.
- The court reversed summary judgment in part, holding that triable issues existed on:
  - vicarious liability under a common-carrier framework, and
  - breach of an implied contract to safely transport Nazareth as a paying passenger.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings on the surviving theories.

## Legal Principles

- Summary judgment is improper when, construing the record and pleadings in the nonmovant’s favor, genuine issues of material fact remain.
- An ambulance business providing compensated public transportation services may qualify as a common carrier and owe passengers the highest degree of care.
- In the common-carrier setting, the carrier’s duty to protect passenger safety may support liability for intentional torts committed by carrier employees who are placed in control of the passenger during transit, even if the act is personal and not a typical job-related act.
- A paid transportation arrangement may create an implied contract of safe carriage; harm inflicted during performance can support a breach claim.
- Punitive damages against an employer for an employee’s intentional misconduct generally require proof of employer authorization, ratification, or independent corporate fault, rather than mere employment.

## Conclusion

The court held that the ambulance company could face trial on theories that it owed common-carrier duties and an implied contractual duty of safe carriage to a paying passenger, making summary judgment improper on vicarious-liability and contract claims arising from an alleged in-transit sexual assault, while leaving intact summary judgment rejecting general negligence and punitive damages.


Nazareth v. Herndon Ambulance Serv., Inc., 467 So. 2d 1076 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 5th Dist. 1985)