A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s ruling that allows the family of Atlas Fraley to proceed with its lawsuit against an Orange County Medical Services emergency medical technician, James Griffin. Griffin was the EMT who responded to the 17-year-old Fraley’s home when Fraley placed a 911 call in 2008 to complain of full body cramps and dehydration after a high school football practice. Fraley died after Griffin left the home to respond to other emergency calls.
Griffin had moved to have the lawsuit against him dismissed on the grounds of “public official immunity,” but appellate judges agreed with the trial court that the suit can proceed.
In other opinions released this morning:
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a lower-court ruling favoring the Cumberland County school board in a lawsuit involving the severe injuries of a 6-year-old boy who fell through bleachers at Fayetteville’s 71st High School.
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a lower-court ruling in a dispute between the N.C. Department of Transportation and a developer over access to a 188-acre proposed development near a railroad line.
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a lower-court ruling allowing one tenured associate professor in N.C. State University’s Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering to pursue a libel suit against a tenured colleague over an unfavorable “annual review.”
