Suspended Culpeper rescue squad challenging state's decision

Date published: 8/24/2007

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

The Culpeper County Volunteer Rescue Squad wants to be heard.

After its licenses were suspended indefinitely earlier this year, the squad commonly known as Company 11 filed suit against the Virginia Department of Health demanding a formal hearing.

Pretrial conference motion arguments are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 11. No trial date has been set.

The embattled company, which has shifted in and out of controversy since seven prominent members were suspended eight years ago, had its license to run calls revoked Jan. 3. According to the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services, the unit was not providing service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Eight days before an informal March 6 conference, the state amended its action from revocation to suspension.

The suspension was lifted, but then reissued May 29.

The rescue squad sent a letter protesting that decision on June 5, arguing that since there were no conditions attached to the May 29 order, it was, in fact, a revocation.

On June 11, the Health Department informed Company 11 that the state was not backing down.

That led to the rescue squad and its attorney, Waverly Parker of Stanardsville, to file suit in Culpeper County Circuit Court demanding a formal hearing.

The suit claims the Health Department and its commissioner, Dr. Robert B. Stroube, erred in revoking the squad's medical license in January without holding a formal hearing. It further states that the Office of Emergency Medical Services erred in not granting the squad a continuance at the March 6 conference after the state amended its original revocation order only eight days before the hearing date.

The court papers claim that both state actions, on Jan. 3 and an "undated decision" received on May 29, contained "no terms of suspension" and should therefore be viewed as a revocation of the squad's medical licenses. Company 11 contends that those licenses cannot by law be revoked without a formal hearing.

The court papers further state that "every emphasized sentence of the language from the State Commissioner of Health's Telefax on June 11, 2007 is simply wrong as a matter of law."

That fax contained the notice that Company 11's informal appeal, or letter of protest, had been denied.

The squad filed a formal appeal on June 22. It initiated its suit against the Health Department July 6.

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Date published: 8/24/2007