Opinion ID: 518738
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the summary judgment for donadini

Text: 55 The original defendants in the case included Mark Mulcahy and James Donadini, Jr., the DYS caseworker and assistant regional director who assumed responsibility for plaintiff after her case had been transferred to a new region. After learning of plaintiff's parents' statement that the father's testimony had been fabricated, Mulcahy and Donadini immediately relayed this information to the plaintiff. The district court found that this action by Mulcahy and Donadini fulfill[ed] their constitutional duty. Germany, 673 F.Supp. at 1148. The court therefore granted summary judgment in favor of Mulcahy and Donadini. Plaintiff appeals only from the summary judgment for Donadini. We affirm the summary judgment for Donadini, although on different grounds from those relied on by the district court. 56 The district court found that on June 9, 1980, after reporting the parents' statement to plaintiff, Donadini told plaintiff that  'anything which can be done to help the situation' would be done. Id. at 1145. Plaintiff contends that Donadini took no action until almost four months later, on October 1, 1980. At that time, Donadini sent a letter to Judge Cullen of the Woburn District Court, informing him that plaintiff's parents had admitted that the charges against plaintiff had been falsified in an effort to obtain services for Suzanne. Plaintiff suggests that Donadini's delay in informing the court of the alleged falsification constituted an unconstitutional denial of access to the courts. Plaintiff also argues that she relied on Donadini's assurance that anything that could be done for me would be done. By failing to discharge the responsibility that he had assumed, plaintiff argues, Donadini effectively deprived her of the opportunity to petition the court for relief. 57 The district court seems to have decided that by relaying the parents' statement to plaintiff, Donadini (along with Mulcahy) automatically fulfill[ed] [his] constitutional duty. Id. at 1148. To the extent that it equated conveying this information to plaintiff with safeguarding plaintiff's liberty, the district court erred. Suzanne Hussey (Germany) was 16 years old and had not completed the tenth grade at the time that she was informed of her parents' statement. We cannot say that under these circumstances simply relaying the parents' statement to plaintiff was the sort of affirmative conduct needed to ensure her right of access to the courts. It is possible that a DYS employee entrusted with the supervision of a minor had the duty to take further steps--for example, by personally bringing the information to the attention of the court or, at least, to some other DYS official or legal officer who could be expected to take proper action. 58 Despite this, we affirm the summary judgment for Donadini because it is apparent that his delay in reporting the information to Judge Cullen, after having earlier advised plaintiff, was, at worst, merely negligent. There is no evidence to suggest that Donadini's delay was either intentional or reckless. See Daniels, 106 S.Ct. 662; Davidson, 106 S.Ct. 668. Donadini did not set out to deprive plaintiff of her liberty, nor was it self-evident that his delay would make such a deprivation very likely. Moreover, plaintiff's argument about the paternalism of DYS employees seems less applicable to Donadini's delay--after plaintiff herself had been told of her parents' statement--than it is to Vance's and Paladino's failure to tell plaintiff of the statement. We conclude, therefore, that under the Supreme Court's holdings in Daniels and Davidson, the complaint against Donadini must be dismissed.