In doing so, the judge dismissed American Express from the Dugans' lawsuit, which was filed by their attorneys, Kevin Schwartz and Kevin Garrison. Fujitsu, which blocked 911 at the request of American Express, remains a key defendant.
Unless an Arizona appellate court overrules Judge Wilkinson, American Express will be off the hook.
"It was a very, very close question, one that was right down the line," the judge tells New Times. "This is an issue that the Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court hasn't specifically considered. I would hope--very, very much--that they do."
The ruling deeply frustrates Joe Dugan and his family.
"It sickened me and our kids to hear this 'moved in a profound way' crap from their lawyer," Joe Dugan says, referring to the courtroom comments of American Express attorney David Bodney. "We're looking for truth and justice, but I don't know if we're gonna get it."
@rule:
@body:Within hours after Sarah Dugan collapsed on November 2, 1990, an official from the State of Arizona's Occupational Safety and Health Administration called American Express. OSHA's Linda Masci said she had gotten two calls from company employees that day complaining about the emergency-response system.
Masci told American Express the complaint wasn't an OSHA violation, but she suggested company employees should be certain of what to do in an emergency. With that in mind, the firm began a process of corporate butt-covering.
American Express assigned guards to check the phones in WROC II and, according to an internal memo, to "place emergency stickers on any telephone that didn't have one on it already." That's when the company determined 142 phones lacked such stickers. Within a few days, American Express placed 1414 stickers on most of those phones.
Then, on November 6, American Express security manager Ed Kurowski sent a memo to his boss, Don Parrish. The memo said that "all parties, after careful study, found the policies/procedures [of the 911 blockage] to be correct and effective."
Still, Kurowski ultimately recommended that American Express "remove block on 911 at WROC I and WROC II. Risk: If block is removed, security may not be notified and correct information on location not received by responding emergency unit."
Ex-American Express employee Sandra Cordes says company supervisors told WROC II employees soon after the incident "that the phone system had been changed so that when you called 911, it would go through to security and to 911 at the same time. So you would have both on the phone. . . ."
To many employees at WROC II, the corporate reaction was an unspoken admission that shutting down 911 had been a terrible mistake.
But the saga of 911 and American Express was not yet concluded. Several weeks ago, sources at American Express told New Times that the two-way emergency-response system--911 and 1414--was in effect at WROC II, but not at nearby WROC I.
Those sources said if someone dialed 911 from WROC I, he or she will get a recorded message: "This is a nonworking number at American Express."
But soon after the company got wind that New Times was preparing a story on the Sarah Dugan episode, it issued a memo detailing emergency procedures at the two WROC buildings and at a third Phoenix location.
The memo, dated July 13, assures employees that "workplace safety and security is a high priority at American Express." It notes employees should dial 1414 in case of emergency, but adds, "in addition, employees can access 911 by dialing 9-911."
@rule:
@body:At the end of each of his days, Joe Dugan says he quietly talks with his God: "I ask Him, 'How did I do today? Was I patient enough with Sarah?' If He had wanted to take Sarah on November 2, 1990, He would have. But she's still here with us."
He spends almost every minute with his wife, and he says he will tend to her until one of them dies.
"I love her and it's my responsibility to her," Joe Dugan says. "That's a word American Express should learn--responsibility."
Sarah hollers something from the bedroom. Her husband walks to her side to see what she needs. She moans something unintelligible to him.
"I love you, honey," Joe Dugan responds.
"I know you do," Sarah Dugan replies, in a rare moment of painful lucidity. She bursts into tears and shuts her eyes.
"You are a wonderful woman, Sarah Dugan," her husband of 35 years says, as he strokes her hand gently. "God will look out for us.
