Defendant's Attorney: Chickasha, Oklahoma insurance defense lawyers represented the Defendant.

Description: Chickasha, Oklahoma personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued the Defendant on a Governmental Tort Claims Act auto negligence theory.

¶0 After an ambulance collided with a turnpike tollbooth, the injured toll-worker filed a lawsuit against the ambulance driver and her employer, the Jackson County Emergency Medical Services District. The medical district sought to dismiss the lawsuit. It argued that it was entitled to governmental immunity, and that the Governmental Tort Claims Act, 51 O.S. 2021 §155(14) applied to prohibit recovery because the toll-worker had recovered workers compensation benefits. The trial court denied the dismissal. The medical district filed an Application to Assume Original Jurisdiction and Petition for Writ of Prohibition in this Court to prevent the trial court from proceeding further. We assume original jurisdiction and grant the writ of prohibition by opinion. We hold that: 1) pursuant to the Okla. Const. art. 10, §9C, although the medical district is a unique entity, it is subject to lawsuits through its board of trustees to the same extent as any Oklahoma municipality or county; and 2) the Governmental Tort Claims Act, 51 O.S. 2021 §§155(14) et seq., is applicable to preclude recovery.

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¶32 In this regard, the GTCA provides in 51 O.S. 2021 §155 that:

The state or a political subdivision shall not be liable if a loss or claim results from: . . .

14. Any loss to any person covered by any workers' compensation act or any employer's liability act;

This Court has, in three previous opinions, unanimously interpreted this section to mean that if a loss is covered by workers compensation, the state or political subdivision is precluded from liability. For example, in Childs v. State ex rel. Oklahoma State University, 1993 OK 18, ¶1, 848 P.2d 571, we answered the question of whether subsection 14s immunity extended to include its liability to persons not employed by the State of Oklahoma, but were covered for the injurious event by the workers' compensation regime of another state.

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Outcome: ¶37 The medical districts, created by the Okla. Const. art. 10 §9C, are a unique entity governed solely by a board of trustees, which is also created through the provisions of art. 10, §9C. The "district" and "board of trustees" are treated as one and the same, with the board of trustees as officers and governing "the districts." The Okla. Const. art. 10, §9C provides that the board is immune from civil suit for actions or omissions arising from the operation of the district, so long as, and to the same extent as, municipalities and counties within the state enjoy such immunity.

¶38 When the district is amenable to a lawsuit, the expressed entity to be sued is the medical district board of trustees, as its governing body. Because the medical district, vis-a-vis the board of trustees, is subject to liability to the same extent as municipalities and counties within the state enjoy such immunity, the GTCA governs the legal liability limits of such medical districts, unless there are express provisions to the contrary. Pursuant to the GTCA, this lawsuit is precluded because workers compensation benefits have previously been awarded.

ORIGINAL JURISDICTION ASSUMED;
PETITION FOR WRIT OF PROHIBITION GRANTED.

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