Opinion ID: 2961063
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Davis litigation

Text: At all relevant times, Jason Davis suffered from a variety of acute psychiatric disorders, including schizo-affective and bipolar disorders. In May 1993, when he was 28 years old, Jason was involuntarily committed to Westborough State Hospital (Westborough), a public mental health care facility. About three months later, on August 12, Jason was severely beaten by a mental health care worker at Westborough while five others physically restrained him and a nurse looked on and encouraged the beating.1 In August 1996, Jason filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 12, § 11I, alleging that the mental health care workers (and their supervisors) violated his civil rights. The jury found for Davis against the six mental health care workers and the nurse,2 and awarded Davis a total of $100,000 in compensatory damages. Those defendants were jointly and severally liable for the compensatory 1 We have previously described Jason's beating in detail when we upheld the jury's verdict and damages award in his case. See Davis v. Rennie, 264 F.3d 86, 93-95 (1st Cir. 2001). Appellant has incorporated much of our accounting of these facts in the complaint. 2 The six healthcare workers were Phillip Bragg, Paul Rennie, Richard Gillis, Thomas Michael Hanlon, Leonard Fitzpatrick, and Nicholas Tassone. The nurse was Joyce Weigers. - 3 - damages. The jury also awarded punitive damages against all but one of those same defendants (Nicholas Tassone), based on a finding that they 'harbored . . . ill will towards [Jason].' Davis v. Rennie, 264 F.3d 86, 115 (1st Cir. 2001). After the district court reduced the punitive damages amount through remittitur, Davis was owed $1.025 million in punitive damages. On appeal, we affirmed the jury's verdict and the damages award. See id. at 117. Because Tassone was not subject to the punitive damages award, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) indemnified him and paid Davis the entire $100,000 compensatory damage award. However, DMH refused to indemnify the other defendants because the Commonwealth argued that Massachusetts law prohibits state employers from indemnifying their employees for punitive damages awards arising out of civil rights actions. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 258, § 9. Jason died on June 14, 2004. None of the defendants subject to the punitive damages award have paid their share.3 Appellant alleges that the entire outstanding judgment (including attorneys' fees, costs, and interest) currently stands at $2.1 million. 3 In June 2014, the Massachusetts legislature passed a joint appropriation to pay Davis $500,000 of the outstanding judgment owed to him. In July 2014, Patrick vetoed the joint appropriation, stating that state law . . . prohibits indemnifying employees under these circumstances. According to appellant, the Massachusetts legislature overrode the veto, but the joint appropriation has not been paid. - 4 -