Hernandez v. County of Monterey

70 F. Supp. 3d 963, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138247, 2014 WL 4843945
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedSeptember 29, 2014
DocketCase No. 5:13-cv-02354-PSG
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 70 F. Supp. 3d 963 (Hernandez v. County of Monterey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hernandez v. County of Monterey, 70 F. Supp. 3d 963, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138247, 2014 WL 4843945 (N.D. Cal. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS TO DISMISS

(Re: Docket Nos. 44, 58, 75)

PAUL S. GREWAL, United States Magistrate Judge

The present motions in this civil rights suit raise two related issues: exactly who may challenge the conditions of a county jail and who exactly may be challenged? While standing and mootness disputes in cases such as this are hardly new, the question of whether a private provider of jail medical facilities are services can face scrutiny under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act does appear to be novel.1

The first motion before the court is a motion to dismiss filed by Defendants County of Monterey and Monterey County Sheriffs Office.2 The second motion to dismiss was filed by Defendant California Forensic Medical Group, Incorporated.3 Plaintiffs oppose,4 and the parties appeared for a hearing.5 Having considered the arguments, the court denies both motions.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background6

Plaintiffs are inmates or recently released inmates from the Monterey County jail.7 Each plaintiff has been jailed multiple times.8 The jail frequently houses more than 1,1-00 inmates per day,9 and [968]*968inmates stay in the jail on average for 30-40 days.10 The vast majority of the jail’s population constitutes pretrial detainees with unpredictable, but brief, lengths of stay. The complaint alleges a litany of substandard conditions at the jail, including: violence due to understaffing, overcrowding, inadequate training, policies, procedures, facilities, and prisoner classification; inadequate medical and mental health care screening, attention, distribution, and resources; and lack of policies and practices for identifying, tracking, responding, communicating, and providing accessibility for accommodations for prisoners with disabilities.11

The County provides inmates access to health care and services under a contract with CFMG, a private company that administers all jail health care facilities and services.12 The contract took effect on April 1, 2012.13 The contract provides that CFMG “shall be responsible for the medical care, dental care, and mental health, care of an inmate commencing with [] booking.”14 CFMG is further responsible for “administering medications to inmates,” providing required “medical supplies, and medical record supplies,” and for “the cost of all pharmaceuticals administered.” 15 Under the contract, CFMG “shall determine the method, details and means of performing services,” and CFMG’s Medical Director is “responsible to assure the quality of health care provided.”16 CFMG employs over fifty staff members.17

B. Procedural Background

Five plaintiffs filed an initial complaint.18 In eight causes of action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of a putative class, the complaint alleges the conditions in the jail violate the Eights and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, Article I, Sections 7 and 17 of the California Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and Cal. Gov’t Code Section 11135.19. In a first amended complaint, eight named plaintiffs were added.20 In a second amended complaint, nine new plaintiffs were added and one plaintiff was dismissed, resulting in the current total of 21 named plaintiffs.21

The County and Sheriffs Office filed an initial motion to dismiss challenging the standing of one plaintiff not in custody when his claim was filed and the mootness of the claims of nine others who were no longer in custody.22 In the meantime, Plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification.23 Plaintiffs seek certification of a prisoner class, consisting of all current and future prisoners in the jail, and a prisoners with disabilities subclass, consisting of all current and future prisoners who have a qualifying disability.24

[969]*969CFMG also filed a motion to dismiss of its own, joining the County and Sheriffs Office’s motion based on standing as well as challenging Plaintiffs’ sixth cause of action against' CFMG under Title III of the ADA.25 Defendants then amended their motion to dismiss by dropping one plaintiff based on his re-incarceration and adding two others because they had been released from custody.26 In their reply brief, Defendants further dropped from their motion yet another plaintiff because he, too, re-, turned to custody.27

II. LEGAL STANDARDS

A. 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss

A complaint must contain “a short plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.”28 If a plaintiff fails to proffer “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face,” the complaint may be dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.29 A claim is facially plausible “when the pleaded factual content allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.”30 But courts “are not bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation.”31 Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), “dismissal can be based on the lack of a cognizable legal theory or the absence of sufficient facts alleged under a cognizable legal theory.”32 A court may dismiss a claim “only if it is clear that no relief could be granted under any set of facts that could be proved consistent with the allegations.” 33

B. Standing

To demonstrate standing to seek equitable relief, Article III of the U.S. Constitution requires that (1) a plaintiff has suffered an actual or threatened injury as a result of the defendant’s alleged illegal conduct; (2) the injury is “fairly traceable” to the defendant’s action; and (3) the injury is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision.34 A plaintiff must establish standing as of the filing of the [970]*970complaint.35 Where multiple plaintiffs present the same class claims in multiple complaints, each plaintiff must establish standing as of the date of the filing in which the plaintiff first appears.36 Where a plaintiff seeks prospective injunctive relief, he also must demonstrate “that he is realistically threatened by a repetition of [the violation].”37 ‘Where a named plaintiff is a member of a plaintiff class, and' ‘members of the class have repeatedly suffered personal injuries in the past that can fairly be traced to the [defendants’] ^standard ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 F. Supp. 3d 963, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138247, 2014 WL 4843945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hernandez-v-county-of-monterey-cand-2014.