90 results for 'cat:"Civil Rights" AND cat:"Wrongful Death"'.
J. Robinson rules that the parents of a deceased student athlete may pursue wrongful death claims against a former University of San Diego rowing coach, who allegedly demoted the student's position on the team and verbally abused him after he reported that another teammate sexually harassed a group of female students. The parents sufficiently allege that the abusive rowing coach, who was eventually fired from his job, may have contributed to the student's death by suicide.
Court: USDC Southern District of California, Judge: Robinson, Filed On: August 23, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv1703, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Education, wrongful Death
J. Corker grants the city's motion for summary judgment in this lawsuit arising from a fatal shooting at an apartment complex, where a city police officer was "investigating a hit and run." The officer allegedly shot an individual following a struggle, and the decedent's estate now asserts claims for excessive force and municipal liability. However, the estate fails to establish the city's liability under a failure-to-train theory or a ratification theory.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Tennessee , Judge: Corker, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 3:20cv387, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death
J. Moody rules in part for police defendants in civil rights and wrongful death claims. The decedent was an innocent bystander to a high speed police chase that resulted in his death, but evidence does not indicate officers acted in an unreasonable manner. Meanwhile, remaining state law claims should be heard in that venue.
Court: USDC Northern District of Indiana, Judge: Moody, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv318, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, civil Rights, wrongful Death
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J. Stranch finds the lower court properly denied the police officer's motion for qualified immunity because the evidence in the record indicates no one was in danger at the time he shot the victim, who was slowly coming to a stop in his vehicle and was not in a position to run over the officer. Although the victim initially struck a police officer when he escaped from custody, from that point on he drove under the speed limit, avoided all pedestrians and police officers, and was in the process of complying with the officer's orders when he was shot and killed. Affirmed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Stranch, Filed On: August 10, 2023, Case #: 22-3285, Categories: civil Rights, Immunity, wrongful Death
J. Gibbons finds the lower court properly granted the paramedics' motion for summary judgment on the grounds of qualified immunity because their decision to stop live-saving treatment did not expose the victim to a "private act of violence" that would render them liable for her death. Although the victim eventually woke up in the funeral home after being placed in a body bag, her family members were not prevented from providing medical assistance after the paramedics left the home and the paramedics made no affirmative actions that would allow the estate to pursue a state-created danger theory of liability. Affirmed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Gibbons, Filed On: July 26, 2023, Case #: 22-1681, Categories: civil Rights, Immunity, wrongful Death
J. Silva grants the county's motion to dismiss a wrongful death suit brought by the estate of a man who was killed by officers after failing to comply with commands and driving through the security gate at the Nevada National Security Site, leading officers on a chase. Private security officers were private actors who acted pursuant to their federal contract within a federal jurisdiction, and to the extent they acted with the county and its employees, both parties were jointly under color of federal, not state, law. The county employees have qualified immunity, and the estate does not state a plausible claim for relief.
Court: USDC Nevada, Judge: Silva , Filed On: July 24, 2023, Case #: 2:20cv2359, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Jurisdiction, wrongful Death
J. Southwick finds the district court improperly found in favor of the Pasadena police officers who restrained and tased a detainee several times during an epileptic seizure. Jail video shows that the detainee began to roll, kick and allegedly bite officers. An officer deployed her taser and the detainee got up, was tased again, then fell face-first onto the concrete floor. He died the next day at the hospital. The estate has identified clearly established law that the actions constituted excessive force and delay of emergency medical care. The record is insufficient to support a jury question on whether city use-of-force policies are too vague; summary judgment as to municipal liability was properly entered. Affirmed in part. Reversed in part and remanded.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Southwick, Filed On: July 18, 2023, Case #: 22-20341, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Grasz finds a lower court properly dismissed an estate administrator's inadequate medical care claims against a County. The estate administrator argued that County employees acted deliberately indifferent when they failed to provide a defendant inmate, now deceased due to terminal cancer, with proper medical care services during six months of pretrial detention. However, the County provided sufficient evidence in court that jail house employees provided him with healthcare services and multiple physician opinion requests, placed him in a hold over cell where he could be adequately monitored, and then granted his request for compassionate release once he became deathly ill and emaciated. Affirmed.
Court: 8th Circuit, Judge: Grasz, Filed On: July 12, 2023, Case #: 22-2644, Categories: civil Rights, Health Care, wrongful Death
J. Menendez partially grants the sheriff's deputy's motion for summary judgment in the father's case against him and his employer stemming from the shooting of his son. The deputy is not entitled to qualified immunity, since his decision to shoot the son was not made objectively reasonable by the son's brief turning of his head such that a gun, pointed at his head, could theoretically have fired a bullet through the head and in the general direction of officers. A failure-to-train claim against the county is dismissed, however, since the father has not provided sufficient evidence for a factual dispute over whether the county received notice of a pattern of unconstitutional acts. The deputy and county's motions to strike a dash-camera footage exhibit is denied, and their motions to exclude two experts' reports and testimony are granted in part.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Davis, Filed On: July 6, 2023, Case #: 0:20cv2474, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Ray partially grants the estate's motion to compel the county to produce documents in a civil rights and wrongful death action arising from the decedent's death while incarcerated at the Chatham County Detention Center. The documents include reports about the provider's provision of services at the detention center, doctors' review of the decedent's medical charts, an inmate mortality chart related to a different deceased inmate and inmate health compliance monitoring reports. The reports created by the doctor did not become attorney-client privileged information just because the county attorney received them. Two reports are also not protected from disclosure by the work product doctrine. However, the motion to compel the inmate healthcare provider to produce documents is partially denied because email communications between an employee and the provider's general counsel are protected by attorney-client privilege.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Ray, Filed On: July 6, 2023, Case #: 4:22cv67, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death, Discovery
J. Slaughter finds in favor of the county for the family’s claim that deputies fatally shot the sovereign citizen via a sniper rifle after he could not hear their surrender orders. The deputies did not violate the sovereign citizen’s Fourth Amendment right, because he was armed, previously refused to comply with orders, and had a bag that was sufficiently suspicious enough for the deputies to believe that it contained a bomb.
Court: USDC Central District of California, Judge: Slaughter, Filed On: July 3, 2023, Case #: 5:20cv2602, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Lioi denies, in part, the police officer's motion for summary judgment, ruling he is not entitled to qualified immunity because a reasonable jury could find in favor of the estate based on witness testimony that the decedent complied with the officer's commands, did not resist arrest, and did not turn to face the officer after the two separated. Forensic evidence also indicates the decedent was more than 30 feet away when he was shot and killed, which contradicts the officer's version of events.
Court: USDC Northern District of Ohio, Judge: Lioi, Filed On: June 30, 2023, Case #: 5:20cv674, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Immunity, wrongful Death
J. Mathis finds the lower court erroneously granted the jail nurse's motion for summary judgment on the estate's deliberate indifference claim. He knew the detainee had lost consciousness when he examined her injuries and, under jail policy, he was required to transfer the detainee to the hospital. The failure to follow jail policy, when combined with the fact the nurse examined the detainee three times in the span of 10 minutes, is sufficient to allow a jury to find he acted recklessly; therefore, the claims against him will be reinstated. Meanwhile, previous cases from this court with similar circumstances would have put the nurse on notice that a failure to act when a detainee has seizures and loses consciousness would violate their constitutional rights, and so he is not entitled to qualified immunity. Reversed in part.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Mathis, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: 22-3904, Categories: civil Rights, Immunity, wrongful Death
J. Bush finds the lower court erroneously determined the employees of a private facility were not state actors and dismissed the estate's deliberate indifference lawsuit in connection with a 15-year-old who died by suicide at the facility. The facility was similar to a prison and exercised authority over juveniles via court-ordered confinement. Reversed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Bush, Filed On: June 28, 2023, Case #: 22-1487, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death
J. Kleeh grants in part and denies in part the Lewis County Commission and three deputy sheriffs’ motion for summary judgment in a wrongful death suit claiming the deputies contributed to a parolee’s death when, following the parolee’s arrest on an outstanding warrant, they beat and tazed him while he was face-down on the ground. After determining the estate’s seven state clams is just one for wrongful death under different theories of liability, the court finds the deputies’ actions could be interpreted by a jury as “malicious, in bad faith, wanton, or reckless.” In addition to the finding in favor of the county on all the estate’s claims, including a federal Monell claim for the deputies’ possibly unconstitutional actions in violation of local law, custom or policy, the court finds the deputies are entitled to qualified immunity on the estate’s excessive use of force claim, determining it was not clearly established the parolee had a right not be tazed in his encounter with them.
Court: USDC Northern District of West Virginia, Judge: Kleeh, Filed On: June 20, 2023, Case #: 2:20cv47, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Herrera mostly declines to dismiss a civil rights case brought on behalf of a deceased prisoner alleging that healthcare and prison officials were “deliberately indifferent to and recklessly ignored” the medical condition of the deceased man, allegedly ultimately leading to his death. While much of this case can survive, the warden and a top health official should be given qualified immunity on claims that they allegedly made the call to remove the deceased man from life support, because there is not adequate evidence that the two officials personally made this decision and even if they did, they were operating based on the “unanimous medical consensus” of other officials and did not go beyond their official discretion, even if it went against the wishes of the deceased man’s family.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Herrera, Filed On: June 16, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv20, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Health Care, wrongful Death
J. Benton finds a lower court improperly granted summary judgment to a City on civil rights claims brought by an estate administrator. The City argued that the estate administrator's decedent, who was holding a gun and threatening suicide, refused to drop his weapon under the command of an officer, who shot and killed him. However, the estate administrator presented sufficient evidence in court that her son removed the gun from his temple before he was shot to death. Reversed.
Court: 8th Circuit, Judge: Benton, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 21-3001, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death
J. Boardman denies a couple leave for their third amended complaint alleging wrongful death, state-created danger and conscience-shocking conduct against a county school board after their daughter’s ex-boyfriend shot and killed her at school. The couple alleges that the board, along with the principal, the school’s security staff and several teachers are at fault for failing to stop the ex-boyfriend, whom they allegedly knew harassed the daughter. However, the couple falls short of plausibly arguing that the board and staff’s knowledge of the boy’s behavior led directly to the girl's death. Those parties also have qualified immunity. All federal claims are dismissed, and the couple are free pursue any state claims.
Court: USDC Maryland, Judge: Boardman, Filed On: June 5, 2023, Case #: 8:20cv161, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Due Process, wrongful Death
J. Williams rules in part for New Jersey state troopers accused of shooting and killing someone during a struggle after they found him in an abandoned building. The troopers testified they feared for their lives when the decedent, who had broken free from several arrest attempts, grabbed a large metal pole, but questions of fact exist as to whether the decedent posed an actual threat.
Court: USDC New Jersey, Judge: Williams , Filed On: May 24, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv15257, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death
J. Peterson finds in favor of the county and police officers in a lawsuit from the surviving family of an inmate who died by hanging while he was detained at the county's jail, which the family's Eighth and 14th Amendment claims assert happened because the officers failed to reasonably protect him and prevent his suicide. Based on the facts in the record, and applying the objective reasonableness standard, the officers and jail staff either could not have known or would not have reasonably believed the inmate was suicidal based solely on his bizarre behavior and statements, including hitting himself and talking about "demonic" things. Because the claims against the county about the adequacy of its screening and cell check protocols also fail, summary judgment is granted to the county and officers and the case is closed.
Court: USDC Western District of Wisconsin, Judge: Peterson, Filed On: May 18, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv241, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Constitution, wrongful Death
J. Johnston grants the government’s motion to dismiss the estate of a Roane County man’s civil rights suit against the U.S. Marshals Service for the man’s 2020 shooting death by a Roane County Sheriff’s deputy assigned to a Marshals task force as a special deputy. The court finds, following its prior ruling the deputy was acting in his capacity with Roane County Sheriff’s Department at the time of the shooting, the estate is collaterally estopped from making a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act the deputy was in acting his role with the Marshals.
Court: USDC Southern District of West Virginia, Judge: Johnston, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv426, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Byrne finds the lower court properly denied the estate's request to appoint counsel after it filed a pro se civil rights complaint. Although its representative claimed she was indigent and disabled, there is no precedent or right to counsel during civil proceedings. Meanwhile, even though pro se litigants are given some leeway regarding the rules of procedure, the trial court properly dismissed the claims because the estate's representative failed to issue a summons to any defendant or sign the complaint when it was filed with the court. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Byrne, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-1604, Categories: Civil Procedure, civil Rights, wrongful Death
J. Aycock grants a sheriff’s motion to dismiss claims of wrongful death, as they were filed after the statute of limitations, in regards to the murder of an individual held in prison for trespassing and murdered by a cell sharing inmate.
Court: USDC Northern District of Mississippi , Judge: Aycock, Filed On: May 10, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv114, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, wrongful Death, Prisoners' Rights