Source: http://www.openjurist.org/442/f3d/1178/long-v-county-of-los-angeles
Timestamp: 2015-10-06 12:29:37
Document Index: 49905291

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1367', '§ 1291', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983']

442 F3d 1178 Long v. County of Los Angeles | OpenJurist
442 F. 3d 1178 - Long v. County of Los Angeles HomeFederal Reporter, Third Series442 F.3d
442 F3d 1178 Long v. County of Los Angeles 442 F.3d 1178
Philomene LONG, surviving spouse and heir-at-law of John Thomas Idlet, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 04-55463.
Robert Berke, Law Offices of Robert Berke, Santa Monica, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.
Before: REINHARDT and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges, and WILKEN*, District Judge.
Upon admission to the MSB on March 13, Mr. Idlet was not assigned promptly to a bed and was forced to wait for thirty-eight hours in a wheelchair, during which time he did not receive his required medications. On March 15, the nurse called the on-call physician with a report that Mr. Idlet's feet were red and swollen with 3+ edema2; however, a physician did not see him. On March 18, the nurse recorded that Mr. Idlet was short of breath with labored respiration and a pulse of 100 beats per minute, but the nurse did not call the doctor. On March 19, the nurse recorded that Mr. Idlet claimed he got short of breath when walking a short distance and that both of his feet were swollen and slightly red, but the nurse did not refer him to a doctor.
On March 21, Mr. Idlet asked to be seen by the doctor because "[m]y leg is getting worse,7D' and the nurse recorded that he had `an enlarged abdomen, hard to touch. Noted both lower legs swollen with redness to the feet.' (Pitting edema)." Later in the day the nurse recorded increased swelling and placed Mr. Idlet on the doctor's line for evaluation, but a doctor did not see him that day. On March 22, Dr. Wallace entered a progress note that Mr. Idlet's dose of Lasix (a diuretic) was increased. The progress note does not indicate that Mr. Idlet was actually seen by a physician.
After the district court granted the County's motion for summary judgment on the § 1983 claim and dismissed the action as to the County, the remaining complaint contained only State law claims which, pursuant to stipulation of the parties under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3), the district court dismissed without prejudice. Appellant filed a timely notice of appeal. This court has jurisdiction over the appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 because the order appealed from is a final decision of the district court.3
The moving party has the burden of showing the absence of any genuine issue of fact. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 153, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970). To defeat summary judgment the nonmoving party must go beyond the pleadings and, by its own affidavits or discovery, "set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e). If the non-moving party fails to make this showing, "the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).
"[T]he treatment a prisoner receives in prison and the conditions under which he is confined are subject to scrutiny under the Eighth Amendment." Helling v. McKinney, 509 U.S. 25, 31, 113 S.Ct. 2475, 125 L.Ed.2d 22 (1993). Deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical needs violates the Eighth Amendment's proscription against cruel and unusual punishment. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976).
Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides a cause of action for the "deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws" of the United States. To state a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege two essential elements: (1) that a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States was violated, and (2) that the alleged violation was committed by a person acting under the color of State law. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988).
Municipalities are "persons" under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and thus may be liable for causing a constitutional deprivation. Monell, 436 U.S. at 690, 98 S.Ct. 2018. A municipality may not be sued under § 1983 solely because an injury was inflicted by its employees or agents, however. Id. at 694. Instead, it is only when execution of a government's policy or custom inflicts the injury that the municipality as an entity is responsible. Id. A policy is "`a deliberate choice to follow a course of action ... made from among various alternatives by the official or officials responsible for establishing final policy with respect to the subject matter in question.'" Fairley v. Luman, 281 F.3d 913, 918 (9th Cir.2002) (per curiam) (citing Oviatt v. Pearce, 954 F.2d 1470, 1477 (9th Cir.1992)) (quoting Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 483, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986)).
A policy can be one of action or inaction. See City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 388, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989). Under Canton, a plaintiff can allege that through its omissions the municipality is responsible for a constitutional violation committed by one of its employees, even though the municipality's policies were facially constitutional, the municipality did not direct the employee to take the unconstitutional action, and the municipality did not have the state of mind required to prove the underlying violation. Id. at 387-89, 109 S.Ct. 1197. To impose liability against a county for its failure to act, a plaintiff must show: (1) that a county employee violated the plaintiff's constitutional rights; (2) that the county has customs or policies that amount to deliberate indifference; and (3) that these customs or policies were the moving force behind the employee's violation of constitutional rights. Gibson v. County of Washoe, 290 F.3d 1175, 1193-94 (9th Cir. 2002), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1106, 123 S.Ct. 872, 154 L.Ed.2d 775 (2003).
A municipality's failure to train an employee who has caused a constitutional violation can be the basis for § 1983 liability where the failure to train amounts to deliberate indifference to the rights of persons with whom the employee comes into contact. See Canton, 489 U.S. at 388, 109 S.Ct. 1197. The issue is whether the training program is adequate and, if it is not, whether such inadequate training can justifiably be said to represent municipal policy. Id. at 390, 109 S.Ct. 1197.
In Board of County Commissioners v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997), the Supreme Court discussed the circumstances under which inadequate training can be the basis for municipal liability. The first is a deficient training program, "intended to apply over time to multiple employees." Id. at 407, 117 S.Ct. 1382 (citation omitted). The continued adherence by policymakers "to an approach that they know or should know has failed to prevent tortious conduct by employees may establish the conscious disregard for the consequences of their action—the `deliberate indifference'—necessary to trigger municipal liability." Id. (citation omitted). Further, "the existence of a pattern of tortious conduct by inadequately trained employees may tend to show that the lack of proper training, rather than a one-time negligent administration of the program or factors peculiar to the officer involved in a particular incident, is the `moving force' behind the plaintiff's injury." Id. at 407-08, 117 S.Ct. 1382 (citation omitted).
A plaintiff also might succeed in proving a failure-to-train claim without showing a pattern of constitutional violations where "a violation of federal rights may be a highly predictable consequence of a failure to equip law enforcement officers with specific tools to handle recurring situations." Id. at 409, 117 S.Ct. 1382. The Brown Court explained:
In Miranda v. Clark County, 319 F.3d 465 (9th Cir.2003) (en banc), this court clarified that a municipality may be charged with the failure to train even where trained professionals are involved. The plaintiff, a former defendant whose capital murder conviction was overturned on collateral review on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel, sued the county's public defender's office under § 1983 for implementing policies which led to his wrongful conviction. The complaint alleged that the county had a policy of assigning the least experienced attorneys to capital cases without providing any training, thus demonstrating callous indifference to the defendant's constitutional rights. Id. at 471. The county argued that, as a matter of law, there was no callous disregard of constitutional rights because attorneys who have graduated from law school and passed the bar should be considered adequately trained to handle capital murder cases. Id. The district court dismissed the action for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. On appeal, this court reversed and remanded, holding that the plaintiff stated a claim for municipal liability based on deliberate indifference to his constitutional rights because he alleged "not merely an isolated assignment of an inexperienced lawyer, but a deliberate pattern and policy of refusing to train lawyers for capital cases known to the county administrators to exert unusual demands on attorneys." Id.
In Johnson v. Hawe, 388 F.3d 676 (9th Cir.2004), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 2294, 161 L.Ed.2d 1088 (2005), this court rejected again the notion that a county can rely on the fact that its employees are trained professionals in order to avoid municipal liability. There, an arrestee filed suit under § 1983 alleging that he had been arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated in violation of the Fourth Amendment. In support of his claim of municipal liability he submitted the declaration of a law enforcement expert who opined that the police department's "self-training" program, which assigned responsibility to the individual officer for keeping abreast of recent court decisions involving law enforcement, amounted to a failure to train police officers about enforcement of the State statute under which the plaintiff had been arrested. Id. at 686. Without addressing the plaintiff's failure-to-train argument or the expert's supporting evidence, the district court rejected the municipal liability claim because the plaintiff had set forth no evidence to support the existence of a policy or custom which had been followed in his arrest. This court reversed and remanded. Finding that there were a number of cases which addressed enforcement of the State statute by public officials, the court held that the expert's declaration created "at least a genuine issue as to whether `self-training' in this context amounted to deliberate indifference." Id.
2. Failure to Implement Policies
A separate judgment on the order granting summary judgment was not issued, as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58(a)(1), and entered on the docket, as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 79(a). However, "neither the Supreme Court nor this court views satisfaction of Rule 58 as a prerequisite to appeal."Casey v. Albertson's, Inc., 362 F.3d 1254, 1258 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 870, 125 S.Ct. 108, 160 L.Ed.2d 118 (2004) (quoting Kirkland v. Legion Ins. Co., 343 F.3d 1135, 1140 (9th Cir. 2003)). Rather, where the district court's order is a full adjudication of the issues and clearly evidences the judge's intention that it be the court's final act in the matter, the filing of an appeal, in conjunction with the parties proceeding before the appellate court as if a separate judgment had been entered, indicates an acknowledgment by the parties that a final judgment has been entered. Id. at 1259. A mechanical application of Rule 58 is not required when the parties and the judge all have indicated that they treat a district court entry as a final, separate judgment. Id.
Here, the district court's March 5, 2004, order granting summary judgment fully adjudicated all claims against the County. Three days later, on March 8, 2004, the district court dismissed the remaining supplemental claims against the individual defendants, thus terminating the action. On March 9, 2004, Appellant filed her notice of appeal. The parties have proceeded as if a separate judgment had been entered. Accordingly, Rule 58 does not require dismissal of the appeal. Moreover, the appeal is timely because the entry of judgment became effective 150 days after entry of the district court's order granting summary judgment. See Ford v. MCI Commc'ns Corp. Health & Welfare Plan, 399 F.3d 1076, 1081 (9th Cir.2005). The fact that Appellant filed her notice of appeal before the entry of judgment under the terms of Rule 58 is not problematic; Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(2) provides that the filing of a premature notice of appeal "`is treated as filed on the date of and after the entry.'" Id. (quoting Fed. R.App. P. 4(a)(2)).