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Ninth Circuit:
No Immunity in Death of Inmate Denied Needed Heart Drugs
Panel Says Summary Judgment Was Properly Denied to Nurses Who Did Not Administer Prescribed Doses
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Three nurses who allegedly showed “deliberate indifference” to a jail inmate’s need for medication to control severe heart problems will continue to face a lawsuit by the estate of the man, who died 10 days after he was incarcerated on a two-week sentence on a parole violation, under a decision of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A three-judge panel, in a memorandum opinion filed Wednesday, found no merit to an interlocutory appeal challenging the denial of a defense motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. Comprising the panel were Judges Sandra Ikuta, Michelle Friedland, and Kenneth K. Lee.
The decedent, who had a heart pacer, was Michael Wilson, 32. The sentencing judge had alerted jail officials to the need to provide four medications daily to the inmate, but during the first six days, he received no doses, missing 36 of them. In the next three days, he was provided only six of the 18 prescribed doses.
On the morning of the tenth day— Feb. 14, 2019—he collapsed, was taken to a hospital, and died.
The action was brought by Wilson’s estate “by and through its successor-in-interest Phyllis Jackson” and by Jackon, individually. She had cared for him from the time he was three months old but never adopted him and was termed in the operative pleading his “equitably adopted mother.”
District Court Ruling
The opinion affirms a decision by District Court Ruth Bermudez Montenegro of the Southern District of California. She wrote:
“The question before this Court is whether Wilson had a right to not be denied or delayed in receiving all of his prescribed cardiac medications by jail medical staff who knew of his severe cardiac issues and that he had missed doses of his essential cardiac medications.”
She said the right on the part of Wilson claimed by his estate in its civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. §1983, pursuant to the Eleventh Amendment, “has long been clearly established” in the Ninth Circuit and that “a robust consensus of cases of persuasive authority from other circuits supports this clearly established right,” adding:
“Even if there were not a multitude of cases that clearly established this right, the general constitutional rule preventing the denial or delay of medical treatment, including prescribed medication, applies with obvious clarity to the conduct in question.”
Qualified immunity, which shields public officers from liability for misdeeds, is unavailable where a defendant acts in contravention of a clearly established right.
Ninth Circuit Decision
The Ninth Circuit judges said that “[I]t is clearly established that a medical professional’s inaction in light of a patient’s known need for missed medication may constituted deliberate indifference” and declared:
“Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to Wilson, each nurse separately examined Wilson’s medical records, giving rise to the inference that each nurse knew of Wilson’s need for his prescribed medications, knew of the jail’s failure to provide those medications, and knew of the risk Wilson faced if he did not receive treatment. A reasonable finder-of-fact could conclude that the nurses’ failure to manage Wilson’s potentially fatal condition by providing him with medication for his serious medical needs was in disregard of a substantial risk to Wilson’s health.” Rejecting the contention that Montenegro erred by lumping the nurses together rather than discussing the actions of each of them separately, the Ninth Circuit judges wrote:
“Each nurse engaged in comparable conduct under comparable circumstances, and the nurses were each on notice that ignoring Wilson’s request for a prescribed and necessary treatment could violate Wilson’s clearly established Eighth Amendment rights. Therefore, the district court’s analysis was adequately specific to the circumstances as to each nurse, and we reject the nurses’ argument that the district court erred by not further individualizing its qualified immunity analysis to each nurse.”
The nurses are Macy Germono, Marylene Ibanez, and Anil Kumar. Other defendants include the County of San Diego.
The case is Jackson v. Germono, 23-4408.
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