Agency Not Liable For Deliberate Indifference
In Sexual Harassment Complaint Where
Swift and Affirmative Action Taken

LONG v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES (9 th Cir. 2006) 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 7552

John Thomas Idlet, seventy-one years old and suffering from congestive heart failure, reported to the Los Angeles County Jail, March 11, to begin a 120-day jail sentence. Over the next eighteen days Mr. Idlet's medical condition deteriorated. Although nurses saw him several times during that period, there was no record of a doctor's examination until the early morning of March 29, hours before he died of cardiac arrest. Mr. Idlet's wife, Philomene Long, filed a complaint based on 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court dismissed all of the claims against all of the defendants except the County, against whom Appellant asserted municipal liability for failing adequately to train jail medical staff and failing to implement necessary medical policies, leading to the denial of adequate medical care which resulted in Mr. Idlet's death. The County moved for summary judgment.

The district court granted the County's motion and found that, while a triable issue of fact existed as to whether jail medical staff had deprived Mr. Idlet of adequate medical care, under the Constitution summary judgment as to the County was appropriate because a triable issue as to whether the County had a policy of deliberate indifference to prisoners' medical needs, had not been raised.

The district court found that Long had not shown that a County policy was the cause of Mr. Idlet's injuries. She had not presented evidence that the County knew or should have known that its failure to train its employees would likely result in a constitutional violation. Rather, the court found, evidence showed at most that an individual health care provider may have acted negligently in the care of a single patient.

The United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded for further proceedings the trial court's granting the County's motion for summary judgment on the question of municipal liability.

The Ninth Circuit concluded that Long had presented evidence that created a triable issue regarding whether the County's failure to implement a policy for responding to the fall of a patient who was medically unstable; a policy providing for prompt medical assessment if a patient refuses necessary treatment; and a transfer policy, directing the Medical Services Bureau (MSB) staff to immediately transfer patients no longer medically stable, and that amounted to deliberate indifference to Mr. Idlet's constitutional rights.

The Ninth Circuit pointed out that contrary to the district court's conclusion, the County's policy of hiring trained medical professionals did not insulate it from municipal liability, as a matter of law. The Ninth Circuit stated that it was undisputed that the County knew of Mr. Idlet's medical condition and that the MSB unit was not equipped to care for acutely ill patients, that created a triable issue whether the County's policy of relying on medical professionals without training them how to implement proper procedures for documenting, monitoring and assessing patients for medical instability within the confines of the MSB, amounted to deliberate indifference and was the moving force behind Mr. Idlet's death.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOUR ORGANIZATION

The Ninth Circuit has consistently found that a lack of affirmative policies or procedures to guide employees can amount to deliberate indifference, even when other general policies are in place. It is essential for agencies to be pro-active in making sure that policies are in place regarding the care and treatment of individuals in their custody. Reliance on professional staff to exercise what may be considered "common sense" is to rely at the agency's peril.