Washington State residents Nancy and Daniel Wright challenged a court order preventing ex parte communication with Group Health Hospital (GHH) personnel regarding their injury lawsuit. The ruling was reversed as to communication with non party employees not having managerial authority.

The Wrights brought suit on behalf of their son Jeffrey who was injured at GHH during birth. Their attorney was given GHH nurse contact information but warned not to contact them without GHH legal staff present. Their attorney petitioned to allow ex parte communication with the nurses which was denied due to provisions of Washington Rev. Code § 5.50.060(2) for attorney client protections.

On appeal, the Supreme Court of Washington held that the attorney client privilege did not bar communication with non party personnel as long as they did not possess managerial authority "to speak for and bind" the hospital. See: Wright v. Health Group Hospital, 103 Wn. 192, 691 P.2d 564 (Wash. 1984).

The City of Delta Junction (City) and Alaska corporations Allvest, Inc., and Delta Corrections Group, LLC (DCG), settled a lawsuit after House Bill 149 threatened to halt private prison construction underway at Ft. Greely.

Allvest/DCG and the City commenced the building of a private prison at Ft. Greely. The House ...

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) appealed a New Mexico court denial for gross receipts tax deduction claims totaling over $2 million. The denial was affirmed due to the "per diem rate" prisoner housing calculation.

CCA contracts to house prisoners for the State of New Mexico and filed a claim with the Taxation and Revenue Department for a refund of over $2 million paid pursuant to the Gross Receipts Act (Act). The Act imposes a five percent tax on receipts from business activities and also allows any receipts for real property lease or sales to be deducted. The deductions were denied and the district court upheld the denial ruling that prisoner housing contracts were not real property leases. CCA appealed.

On appeal, the Court of Appeals of the State of New Mexico held that due to the "per diem rate" payment calculation for housing prisoners, "the governmental entities did not pay a fixed amount in exchange for the physical guarantee of real property" and hence "there is no lease for real property" under the Act. See: Corrections Corporation of America v. State of New Mexico. 170 P.3d 1017 (N.M. App. 2007).

Federal prisoner Sherman Fields filed a direct appeal of his convictions and death sentence for murder and rape following his armed escape from the privately-operated McClennan County Detention Center (MCDC) in Waco, Texas. His convictions and sentence were affirmed.

While detained on federal firearm charges at the MCDC in 2001, Fields absconded after purchasing a fire escape door key from a guard for $5,000 and obtaining a .22 pistol. Once free, he acquired another pistol and a car from a friend.

He visited his ex girlfriend, Suncerey Coleman, and her newborn baby at Waco's Hillcrest Hospital. Fields and the somewhat reluctant Coleman drove to nearby Downsville after he persuaded her to accompany him. They had sexual intercourse and he then shot her in the head twice and hid her body in some bushes. Days later he attempted an armed abduction of Hillcrest Hospital employee Tammy Edwards, for unclear reasons; the attempt failed but he managed to flee in her car.

Within weeks Coleman's body was discovered and Fields was soon arrested. While self proclaiming pro se status with court instructed counsel on standby, Fields was convicted of seven charges. He accepted appointed counsel at a separate sentencing hearing, objecting to ...

Vincent Cortlessa, a Pennsylvania state prisoner, sued guards and Primecare Medical, a private health care company, in federal district court after the guards beat him and the health care company failed to provide adequate care. He argued that these actions violated his rights under the federal constitution and state negligence laws. The defendants moved for summary judgment, controverting Cortlessa’s factual allegations.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recognized that summary judgment could not be granted if material disputes existed regarding the facts in the case. The court also found that Primecare, because it was a private company, might be liable for its employees’ behavior on a respondeat superior theory. Although summary judgment was granted to some defendants, it was denied to most. See: Cortlessa v. Doe, U.S.D.C. (E.D. Pa.), Case No. 2:04-cv-01039-MMB (May 25, 2006).

The case proceeded to trial in June 2006, where judgment was entered for the defendants.

Phillip D. Hurst, a Kentucky prisoner, was taking prescribed methadone. When he returned one night to a Lexington County work release center in an intoxicated state, he was examined by two nurses who thought he was experiencing diabetes-related symptoms. He wasn't seen by a doctor, but the nurses periodically checked his vital signs. Hurst was later found dead from a methadone overdose. His daughter and estate sued the county, Correctional Medical Services, the two nurses and other officials in federal district court.

The county settled a loss of consortium claim with Hurst's daughter for an undisclosed amount, but the nurses prevailed at trial on a negligence claim in March 2007. See: Hurst v. Lexington Fayette Urban Co. Government, U.S.D.C. (E.D. Ky.), Case No. 5:05-cv-00214-JBC.

Additional source: 11 Kentucky Trial Court Review No. 4 (2007)

Dr. Edward Zaloga, co-owner of Correctional Care, Inc. (CCI) of Moosic, Pennsylvania, a firm that provides medical services at the Lackawanna County Prison, had his past called into question when a female prisoner was forced to give birth alone in her cell after her pleas for help were ignored.

While the County Correctional Board apologized for the July 10, 2007 incident, the prisoner, Shakira Staten, filed a federal lawsuit against the prison, Zaloga and CCI for cruel and unusual punishment. The Board blamed Staten’s treatment on “serious errors of judgment” on the part of a nurse. The nurse was later fired and the prison adopted new policies for dealing with pregnant prisoners.

The lawsuit dredges up Zaloga’s past, when he was fired by Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Services, another prison medical care firm, in Sept. 1999. While he was employed with Wexford, Zaloga had disagreed with the introduction of a new hepatitis C treatment protocol as “wasteful of taxpayers’ money” because it was yet unproven. It was also expensive, and the amount that Zaloga claimed the money he saved Wexford contributed to the company’s alleged $4 million in profits at the time. Zaloga sued Wexford for wrongful termination, but lost.

Although ...

The federal district court in Delaware has held that Correctional Medical Services (CMS), the medical provider for the Delaware Department of Corrections (DDOC), was deliberately indifferent to a prisoner’s medical needs. The ruling should come as no surprise to PLN readers, as PLN has previously featured the “obviously inadequate” medical care provided to DDOC prisoners by CMS. [See: PLN, Dec. 2005, p.1]

This civil rights action was initiated and prosecuted pro se by DDOC prisoner Richard Turner, who alleged that inadequate medical care at the Delaware Correctional Center violated his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The district court had previously dismissed claims against CMS doctors due to Turner’s failure to serve them. Before the court were summary judgment motions filed by both Turner and the remaining defendants.

The court granted the state defendants’ motion, allowing only the claims against CMS to proceed. At issue were medical services rendered by CMS from July 1, 2000 until June 30, 2002. The court further limited that time period by granting CMS summary judgment, in part, to provide for a two-year statute of limitations. Since Turner’s lawsuit was not filed until October 1, 2002, he could only pursue claims arising after October 1, 2000. ...

On January 10, 2005, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey agreed with a state prisoner’s contention that Prison Health Services’ (PHS) failure to monitor her lithium levels fell under the common knowledge exception of N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:53A-27 and granted her motion for reargument.

Upon admission to New Jersey’s Camden County Jail on August 13, 2002, plaintiff Debra Bryan informed intake personnel that she was taking lithium as part of her treatment regimen for bipolar disorder. While at the jail Bryan began experiencing various medical problems, including “nausea, vomiting, swollen ankles, aches and pains, confusion, pressure behind her eyes and ears, rapid and unexplained weight gain, and acute abdominal pain.” On September 28, 2002, Bryan was transferred to a hospital where “blood and laboratory tests determined that her lithium level was three times the accepted maximum safe level and that she was suffering from lithium toxicity.”

Bryan sued PHS (the jail’s medical provider), Dr. Amira Shah, and multiple other defendants claiming they twice failed to perform blood tests that bad been ordered by a doctor and that this negligence resulted in heart failure, renal complications, and mental anguish. She made claims under both state and ...

The North Carolina Department of Correction (DOC) appealed the reversal of a 1989 summary judgment grant dismissing state prisoner Joe Medley's action for a DOC contracted private physician's negligence. The court affirmed the dismissal holding that the DOC had a duty to provide adequate care.

Medley's leg was amputated after alleged negligence by physician John Stanley. He brought action pursuant to the North Carolina Tort Claims Act (Act). The DOC motioned for summary judgment dismissal because Stanley was an independent contractor and not subject to the Act. Dismissal was granted and Medley appealed arguing that the DOC had a statutory duty to provide him adequate medical care and the court reversed the dismissal. The DOC appealed.

The Supreme Court of North Carolina held that since the federal Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause required the DOC to provide adequate medical care to prisoners, the State's clause imposed at least the same duty if not greater. See: Medley v. North Carolina Department of Correction, 330 N.C. 837, 412 S.E.2d 654 (1992).