Mapp v. We Care Transp. Servs. Inc.

These appeals arise from claims brought by the estate and the surviving children of Vera L. Travis, deceased, alleging that We Care Transportation Services, Inc. and its employee, Alvis A. Haadee, negligently injured Travis and caused her death. The estate and the children alleged that: 1 Travis suffered injuries on March 6, 2007, when she fell out of her wheel chair to the floor of We Care’s non-emergency medical transportation van while the van was being driven by Haadee; and 2 that these injuries caused or contributed to Travis’s death on August 28, 2007. Gladys E. Mapp, as the representative of Travis’s estate, brought claims seeking recovery for Travis’s pre-death pain and suffering and medical expenses. Travis’s surviving children, Gladys E. Mapp, Helen Woods, Vera Clark, and Marie Haynes, brought a wrongful death claim seeking recovery for the full value of Travis’s life. We Care and Haadee moved for summary judgment on all the claims, and on May 5, 2010, the trial court granted summary judgment to We Care and Haadee on the children’s wrongful death claim, and denied summary judgment to We Care and Haadee as to the claims brought by the estate representative. On May 6, 2010, the estate representative filed a voluntary dismissal without prejudice of the claims brought by Travis’s estate against We Care and Haadee. On May 26, 2010, the four children filed a notice of appeal from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment on their wrongful death claim, and on June 10, 2010, We Care and Haadee cross-appealed from the trial court’s denial of their motion for summary judgment on the claims brought by the estate. Pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-48 c, the trial court subsequently dismissed the appeal brought by the children finding that the failure to pay costs in the trial court caused an unreasonable and inexcusable delay in transmission of the appellate record to this court. In Case No. A11A1986, the children appeal from the trial court’s order dismissing their appeal, and in Case No. A11A1987, We Care and Haadee cross-appeal from the trial court’s denial of their motion for summary judgment on the estate’s claims. For the following reasons, we affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand to the trial court in Case No. A11A1986, and dismiss as moot the appeal in Case No. A11A1987.

A11A1986