Olivia Valadez, successor in interest to the Estate of Eric Valadez v. Sutter Health Memorial Hospital Los Banos, et al.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedSeptember 22, 2025
Docket1:22-cv-00263
StatusUnknown

This text of Olivia Valadez, successor in interest to the Estate of Eric Valadez v. Sutter Health Memorial Hospital Los Banos, et al. (Olivia Valadez, successor in interest to the Estate of Eric Valadez v. Sutter Health Memorial Hospital Los Banos, et al.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Olivia Valadez, successor in interest to the Estate of Eric Valadez v. Sutter Health Memorial Hospital Los Banos, et al., (E.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 1] Olivia Valadez, successor in interest to the No. 1:22-cv-00263 KJM-EPG Estate of Eric Valadez, 12 ORDER B Plaintiff, 14 v: 15 Sutter Health Memorial Hospital Los Banos, et 6 al., _ 17 Plaintiff alleges Sutter Health Memorial Hospital Los Banos (the Hospital) violated 18 | federal and California laws when it negligently allowed her son Eric Valadez to escape the 19 | hospital and commit suicide. The court granted plaintiff summary judgment on her claim the 20 | Hospital violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), 21 | 42 US.C. § 1395dd, by failing to provide Valadez stabilizing treatment. The Hospital now 22 | moves for reconsideration of this court’s ruling, arguing the court failed to take into consideration 23 | the report and deposition of its expert to rebut plaintiffs experts’ opinions the Hospital violated 24 | EMTALA. For the reasons that follow, the court grants in part and denies in part the 25 | Hospital’s motion for reconsideration. 26 | I. BACKGROUND 27 Plaintiff filed suit against the Hospital in this court on March 3, 2022. See Compl., ECF 28 | No. 2. Plaintiff alleges the Hospital violated EMTALA, by failing to screen and by failing to

1 stabilize Valadez when it treated him on March 21-22, 2021, see id. ¶¶ 26–34; the Americans 2 with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12181–12189, see id. ¶¶ 17–25; California’s Unruh 3 Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act), Cal. Civ. Code § 51, see id. ¶¶ 35–45, and California’s Disabled 4 Person’s Act (CDPA), Cal. Civ. Code § 54, see id. ¶¶ 46–56. Plaintiff also alleges the Hospital 5 committed negligence per se. See Compl. ¶¶ 57–66. 6 Both parties moved for partial summary judgment on all plaintiff’s claims except her 7 negligence per se claim. See Def.’s Mot. Summ. J., ECF No. 46; Pl.’s Mot. Summ. J., ECF 8 No. 57. In opposition to plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, the Hospital submitted the 9 expert report and partial deposition of Patrice Callagy, the Executive Director of Emergency 10 Services for Stanford Health Care. See Schultz Decl. Exs. D (Callagy Rep.) & E (Callagy Dep.) 11 at 57–74, ECF No. 66.1 Callagy opined the Hospital properly screened Valadez and gave 12 Valadez proper medical care but did not need to give him stabilizing care while he was a patient 13 at the Hospital and therefore did not violate EMTALA. See Callagy Dep. at 19–20, 25 (“I did not 14 see that he needed any treatment that wasn’t being provided.”). Callagy also opined that 15 Valadez’s condition did not deteriorate while he was a patient at the Hospital. See id. at 19 (“I 16 believe the patient had the same condition throughout his visit.”). According to Callagy, 17 Valadez’s condition only deteriorated after he had escaped. See id. Finally, Callagy believed the 18 Hospital’s treatment of Valadez was proper while he was in its care even though the Hospital had 19 not provided Valadez with medication as “he wasn’t exhibiting behavior within the records that 20 required emergency medications to be given or a nurse to escalate it to a physician.” Id. at 28. 21 The court decided both parties’ summary judgment motions. See Order (July 7, 2025), 22 ECF No. 95. The court granted the Hospital’s summary judgment motion on plaintiff’s 23 EMTALA claim insofar as it alleged the Hospital failed to screen Valadez, plaintiff’s ADA claim, 24 plaintiff’s Unruh Act claim, and plaintiff’s CDPA claim. See id. at 24–25. The court otherwise 25 denied the Hospital’s motion. See id. The court denied plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment 1 Pages cited here are those applied at the top right by the CM/ECF system with the exception of deposition transcripts. The court cites depositions to the original page numbers of the deposition transcript. 1 except with respect to plaintiff’s EMTALA claim insofar as it alleged the Hospital failed to 2 provide Valadez stabilizing treatment. See id. at 25. 3 Specifically, the court held that the following elements required to prove a failure to 4 stabilize claim were undisputed. First, the court held it was undisputed Valadez had a qualifying 5 emergency condition. See id. at 16. Second, it held it was undisputed the Hospital had actual 6 knowledge of the emergency condition. See id. at 17. Third, the court held it was undisputed the 7 Hospital was providing emergency care and not inpatient care. See id. Fourth, the court found 8 there was not a dispute of material fact the Hospital failed to provide stabilizing care to Valadez. 9 See id. at 17–18. The court noted the Hospital failed to provide stabilizing anti-psychotic 10 medication and had failed to restrain Valadez so he could not flee from the premises. See id. at 11 17–18. The court also found it was undisputed Valadez’s condition worsened while he was a 12 patient at the Hospital. See id. at 17. Finally, the court found there was no material dispute as to 13 causation: that the Hospital’s failure to restrain Valadez caused his suicide. See id. at 18–19. 14 In making this determination, the court did not reference Callagy’s expert report, or the 15 portions of her deposition submitted by the Hospital in opposition to plaintiff’s motion for 16 summary judgment. See, e.g., id. at 8 n.4 (not citing Schultz Declaration when noting court had 17 “compared the parties’ respective statements of fact and the underlying record and reviewed the 18 relevant deposition transcripts”). Further, the court incorrectly stated the Hospital provided no 19 expert to rebut plaintiff’s clams the Hospital failed to provide stabilizing care to Valadez. See id. 20 at 20. 21 The Hospital submitted its motion for reconsideration on July 17, 2025, arguing Callagy’s 22 expert report creates a dispute of material fact over whether the Hospital violated EMTALA by 23 failing to stabilize Valadez. See Mot., ECF No. 97; Mem., ECF No. 97-1. This motion is now 24 fully briefed. See Mot.; Opp’n, ECF No. 99; Reply, ECF No. 101. The court has determined 25 there is no need for oral argument and so have submitted the motion on the papers. See E.D. Cal. 26 L.R. 230(g). 27 ///// 1 II. LEGAL STANDARD 2 The Hospital can obtain relief from an order for “any . . . reason that justifies relief.” Fed 3 R. Civ. P. 60(b)(6). But its motion for reconsideration should “not be used to ask the court to 4 rethink what the court [has] already thought through—rightly or wrongly.” United States v. 5 Rezzonico, 32 F. Supp. 2d. 1112, 1116 (D. Ariz. 1998). The Hospital’s motion should present 6 “newly discovered evidence” or show the court “committed clear error” or argue there has been 7 an “intervening change in the controlling law.” Marlyn Nutraceuticals, Inc. v. Mucos Pharma 8 GmbH & Co., 571 F.3d 873, 880 (9th Cir. 2009) (quoting 389 Orange St. Partners v. Arnold, 179 9 F.3d 656, 665 (9th Cir. 1999)). For a court to reconsider a previous ruling under the “clear error” 10 standard, it must have a “definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” Smith 11 v. Clark Cnty. Sch. Dist., 727 F.3d 950, 955 (9th Cir. 2013) (quoting United States v. U.S. 12 Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395 (1948)).

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Bluebook (online)
Olivia Valadez, successor in interest to the Estate of Eric Valadez v. Sutter Health Memorial Hospital Los Banos, et al., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/olivia-valadez-successor-in-interest-to-the-estate-of-eric-valadez-v-caed-2025.