Fair v. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided September 16, 2021·No. 2:20-cv-01841·Unknown

Opinion

* * *

PARNELL JAY FAIR, Case No. 2:20-CV-1841 JCM (BNW)

Plaintiff(s), ORDER

v.

DEPARTMENT, et al., Defendant(s).

Presently before the court is defendant Brock Wentz’s motion to dismiss plaintiff Parnell Fair’s complaint (ECF No. 16), to which defendant Jenna A Doud joined (ECF No. 24); defendants Chasity Travis and University Medical Center’s (“UMC”) motion to dismiss Fair’s complaint (ECF No 29), to which Doud joined (ECF No. 31); and defendant Scott Lee’s motion to dismiss Fair’s complaint (ECF No. 32), to which defendant Jesse Wells, Wentz, and Doud and joined (ECF Nos. 36, 38). No responses were filed to any of these motions. Instead, the parties stipulated for Fair to amend his complaint. (ECF No. 44). Also before the court is Wentz’s motion to dismiss Fair’s amended complaint (ECF No. 50), to which defendant Shain Howard, Doud, Wells, and Lee joined (ECF Nos. 51, 52, 53). Fair responded (ECF No. 54) and Wentz replied (ECF No. 59) with Doud, Wells, and Howard joining (ECF Nos. 62, 63). Also before the court is defendant Casey Roehr’s motion to dismiss Fair’s amended complaint (ECF No. 57), to which Doud, Wells, Wentz, Travis, and UMC joined (ECF Nos. 61, 64, 65). Fair responded (ECF No. 67) and Roehr replied (ECF No. 68)1 with Doud, Wells, Wentz, Travis, and UMC joining (ECF Nos. 69, 70, 73). Lee also replied (ECF No. 71)2 with Doud, Wells, Travis, and UMC joining (ECF No. 72, 73). On October 7, 2018, at or around 2:41 a.m., Fair was arrested by defendant Lukas Turley, a police officer working for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. (ECF No. 46 at 7). During that arrest, Lukas allegedly tackled Fair from behind and landed on Fairs right leg, dislocating Fair’s knee and disrupting multiple ligaments therein. (Id.). Over the following hours, Fair pleaded for medical assistance and treatment due to the intense pain in his right leg. (Id. at 7–9). Despite Fair’s pleas for medical treatment, roughly two hours passed before Turley brought Fair to the Clark County Detention Center (“CCDC”). There, CCDC medical personnel instructed Turley to immediately transport Fair to UMC. (Id. at 9). According to Fair, Fair arrived at UMC at approximately 5:38 a.m. and was triaged by defendant Travis, a nurse working at UMC. (Id.). Fair alleges that Travis failed to perform a physical exam and incorrectly assessed Fair’s circulation was “within defined limits.” (Id.). At or around 5:44 a.m., defendant Doud, a physician’s assistant working at UMC, performed Fair’s initial evaluation and ordered X-rays for Fair’s right femur and right tibia/fibula. (Id. at 10). Doud allegedly observed Fair’s substantial pain, but incorrectly assumed against clear evidence that Fair’s symptoms were “secondary to a compartment syndrome.” (Id.). Next, Fair alleges that, at 6:38 a.m., an inpatient orthopedic consultation was conducted by the “Orthopedic service,” which included defendants Lee, Roehr, Howard, and Wentz, who were all doctors working at UMC. (Id.). Fair claims that the Orthopedic service 1 While filed as a reply to ECF No. 54, the reply is clearly directed towards ECF No. 67. See ECF No. 68 at 7 n.6 (citing to ECF No. 67). 2 While filed as a reply to the response to ECF No. 32, there is no response to ECF No. 32, and the reply is clearly directed towards ECF No. 67. See ECF No. 71 at 2 (discussing cases Fair cites in ECF No. 67). failed to correctly interpret his injury and performed an unnecessary procedure. (Id. at 10– 11). Similarly, Fair alleges that at 6:56 a.m., defendant Wells, also a doctor working at UMC, performed a diagnostic test on Fair, which Wells used to incorrectly diagnose Fair with compartment syndrome. (Id.). Fair alleges that these failures added significant delay to Fair obtaining the correct treatment for his injury, a computed tomography angiography (“CTA”). (Id. at 11). Fair did not obtain a CTA until 11:50 a.m., approximately nine hours after his injury. (Id.). By time Fair’s CTA results came back and the Orthopedic service contacted a vascular surgeon, non- party Dr. Mavroidis, Dr. Mavroidis determined that Fair’s right leg was past the point of redemption. (Id. at 12). Accordingly, Dr. Mavroidis recommended and performed an amputation on Fair’s right leg. (Id. at 12). On October 2, 2020, over two years after Fair’s amputation, Fair brought this matter alleging violations of his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against all defendants and medical malpractice/professional negligence against UMC as an organization and defendants Doud, Wells, Lee, Roehr, Howard, Wentz, and Travis (collectively, the “Individual Providers”) in their individual capacity. (ECF No. 1). Two months later, after a flurry of motions to dismiss from UMC and the Individual Providers (ECF Nos. 16, 29, 32), the parties stipulated (ECF No. 44) that Fair would amend his complaint to, inter alia, remove the medical malpractice/professional negligence claim with prejudice. On December 10, 2020, Fair filed his amended complaint to plead only the Section 1983 claim—this time against all defendants. (ECF No. 46). Now, through two motions to dismiss and several joinders to each, UMC and the Individual Providers move to dismiss the amended complaint for a failure to state a claim for relief. (ECF Nos. 50, 51, 52, 53, 57, 61, 64, 65). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8 requires every pleading to contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8. Although Rule 8 does not require detailed factual allegations, it does require more than “labels and conclusions” or a “formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citation omitted). In other words, a pleading must have plausible factual allegations that cover “all the material elements necessary to sustain recovery under some viable legal theory.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 562 (2007) (citation omitted) (emphasis in original); see also Mendiondo v. Centinela Hosp. Med. Ctr., 521 F.3d 1097, 1104 (9th Cir. 2008). The Supreme Court in Iqbal clarified the two-step approach to evaluate a complaint’s legal sufficiency on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. First, the court must accept as true all well-pleaded factual allegations and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff’s favor. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678–79. Legal conclusions are not entitled to this assumption of truth. Id. Second, the court must consider whether the well-pleaded factual allegations state a plausible claim for relief. Id. at 679. A claim is facially plausible when the court can draw a reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the alleged misconduct. Id. at 678. When the allegations have not crossed the line from conceivable to plausible, the complaint must be dismissed. Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570; see also Starr v. Baca, 652 F.3d 1202, 1216 (9th Cir. 2011). If the court grants a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, it should grant leave to amend unless the deficiencies cannot be cured by amendment. DeSoto v. Yellow Freight Sys., Inc., 957 F.2d 655, 658 (9th Cir. 1992). Under Rule 15(a), the court should “freely” grant leave to amend “when justice so requires,

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Fair v. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, (D. Nev. 2021).

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