Opinion ID: 3064997
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Eric Mueller’s Motion for Summary Judgment

Text: Against Rogers [3] The first question we must answer is whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment to Eric Mueller on the merits of his procedural due process pre-deprivation notice claim. We cannot affirm a grant of summary judgment if a genuine issue of material fact exists. Delta, 265 F.3d at 1021. Whether a child is in imminent danger when she is removed from her parents’ custody is a material fact, because it is unlawful to take a child into state custody without notice and a hearing unless that child is in imminent danger. See Ram v. Rubin, 118 F.3d 1306, 1310 (9th Cir. 1997). Because we conclude after reviewing the evidence on this issue in the light most favorable to Rogers that there was a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Rogers was confronted with imminent danger to Taige at the time in question, we reverse the district court’s ruling. [4] As the historical facts clearly indicate, qualified medical doctors told Rogers (1) that there was a 5% chance that Taige had a “serious bacterial infection; meningitis or sepsis,” (2) that she was potentially in danger of dying, (3) that they had only 45 minutes to act to save her, (4) that the risk of treatment was less than the risk of foregoing treatment, (5) that if Taige left the hospital without treatment, “she could become MUELLER v. ROGERS 10815 increasingly ill and die before Mrs. Mueller could return to the hospital,” and (6) Eric Mueller was not there, having delegated the care of his daughter to Corissa. Corissa was uncooperative and becoming hysterical. She had to be removed from the area by police officers. Rogers considered calling Eric but decided against it because: Corissa Mueller was quite adamant in her refusal, and I believe Taige was running out of time to receive needed treatment and did not want to waste valuable time by having Eric or Corissa argue over Dr. MacDonald’s recommendations. Furthermore, I was concerned that even if Eric Mueller consented and Corissa did not, that I would be faced with a tugof-war with Corissa to enforce Eric Mueller’s treatment decision. Moreover, the hospital’s social worker opined that “even if . . . he had provided consent, we had Corissa in the hospital not providing consent. We would have had to follow her wishes. She was there. She was holding the child.” [5] This set of facts and circumstances creates without doubt a classic genuine issue of material fact on the central issue of whether Rogers reasonably perceived imminent danger to Taige. See Ram v. Rubin, 118 F.3d at 1310 (“taking Ram’s children into custody without notice and a hearing was unlawful unless there was imminent danger to the children”). In this respect, our conclusion is fully consistent with the district court’s denial of the Muellers’s substantive due process right-to-a-judicial-hearing-claim on the ground that “[t]hese circumstances create issues of fact over whether Detective Rogers had sufficient time to call a judge.” Having so con- cluded, we move to the next issue: whether Rogers is entitled to qualified immunity on Mueller’s notice claims. 10816 MUELLER v. ROGERS