Thomas Ex Rel. Smith v. Cook County Sheriff

401 F. Supp. 2d 867, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28829, 2005 WL 3091882
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedNovember 16, 2005
Docket04 C 3563
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 401 F. Supp. 2d 867 (Thomas Ex Rel. Smith v. Cook County Sheriff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas Ex Rel. Smith v. Cook County Sheriff, 401 F. Supp. 2d 867, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28829, 2005 WL 3091882 (N.D. Ill. 2005).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

CASTILLO, District Judge.

This case arises out of the tragic death of Norman L. Smith, Jr., (“Smith”) while he was in the custody of the Cook County Department of Corrections. Plaintiff Mar-lita E. Thomas (“Thomas”), as Smith’s mother and the independent administrator of his estate, brings suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983; the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180/1 (2005); the Illinois Survival Act, 755 ILCS 5/27-6 (2005); and Illinois common law. Thomas claims that Smith suffered physical pain, mental anguish, and death as a result of the defendants’ deliberate indifference to Smith’s medical needs.

Eleven of the named defendants have joined in three separate motions to dismiss Thomas’ Third Amended Complaint (“Complaint”). Defendants Callie Baird, Daniel Brown, James Monezynski, Darrell Merriweather, Alex Sanchez, and Michael Sheahan, the Sheriff of Cook County (the “Baird Defendants”) brought one motion (R. 43-1); Cook County, Dr. John Raba, and Ruth M. Rothstein (the “Raba Defendants”) brought a second motion (R. 44-1); and James Myvette and Peggy Westbrook (the “Myvette Defendants”) brought the third motion (R. 46-1). 1 These defendants *870 moved to dismiss Thomas’ Complaint for lack of standing, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), 2 and for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, under Rule 12(b)(6). For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants in part and denies in part these motions.

FACTS 3

On Friday, April 23, 2004, Smith was arrested by two Chicago police officers for possession of a controlled substance and transported to Cook County Jail. (R. 38, Compl.lffl 8-9.) At the time of his arrest, Smith was suffering from flu-like symptoms. (Id. ¶ 9.) Although he complained of these symptoms to medical personnel during his initial screening at the jail by Cer-mak Health Services, he was placed with the general prison population in Division 5, Tier 1-M. (Id. ¶¶ 3, 9.)

By April 26, 2004, Smith’s physical condition had deteriorated, and he began requesting medical attention from various Cook County sheriff officers. (Id. ¶ 10.) These officers denied all of Smith’s requests for help, stating that he was merely “dopesick.” (Id.) By the next morning, April 27, 2004, his condition had deteriorated severely. (Id. ¶ 11.) Smith was vomiting green liquid repeatedly and could not eat. (Id.). Between April 27 and April 29, 2004, Smith and his fellow detainees repeatedly requested that Smith receive medical attention from various sheriff officers and medical technicians. (Id. ¶¶ 11, 25.) Specifically, Smith told various sheriff officers that he wanted to be seen by a doctor or taken to Cermak Health Center (Id. ¶ 10), and that he “felt like he was going to die soon.” (Id. ¶ 11.) On April 29, 2004, one of Smith’s tier-mates made a written request for Smith’s medical attention, explaining that Smith was having chest pains, fever, and vomiting, and that he had been ill for two weeks. (Id. ¶ 26.) These requests were rejected. (Id. ¶¶ 26-27.)

At 4 a.m. on April 30, 2004, one of Smith’s tier-mates awoke to find him lying on the floor of his cell, having convulsions. (Id. ¶ 27.) This tier-mate immediately told Officer Sanchez of Smith’s condition, who then informed Sergeant Monczynski. (Id.) A half-hour later, Sergeant Monczynski checked on Smith’s condition and then called Cermak paramedic Myvette, who arrived at the scene an additional half-hour later, without assistants or medical equipment. (Id. ¶¶ 28-29.) After checking Smith’s pulse, Myvette walked to the tier office to retrieve Smith’s identification. (Id. ¶ 30.) Myvette spent a half-hour trying to *871 locate Smith’s I.D. (Id.) After finding Smith’s I.D., Myvette called for more paramedics from Cermak. (Id.) The additional paramedics arrived on the scene, wheeled a gurney to a staircase about one hundred feet away from Smith, and stopped. (Id. ¶ 31.) By this time, Smith was barely breathing, and one of his eyes was shut while the other was rolled back into his head. (Id.) The paramedics claimed that they lacked the manpower to lift Smith up the stairs and that there was nothing they could do, so Smith’s tier-mates picked him up and carried him up the stairs to the gurney. (Id. ¶ 31.) Smith died of meningitis later that morning. (Id. ¶ 32.) He is survived by his three minor children and estranged wife. (Pl.’s Russ v. Watts Mem. at 2.)

In the Complaint, Thomas separates the named defendants into three groups based on the capacity in which they are being sued: institutional, 4 official, 5 and individual. 6 (CompLIffl 4-6.) In Count II, she alleges that the customs, policies and practices of the institutional defendants violated Smith’s constitutional rights. (Id. ¶ 38.) Thomas claims that those customs, policies, and practices were promulgated, enforced, and disseminated by the official defendants. (Id.) Thomas alleges that these customs, policies, and practices prevented Smith and “many other” pre-trial detainees from receiving adequate medical care, resulting in “at least one other prior recent case of a pre-trial detainee being allowed to slowly die from meningitis while being denied any access to medical care.” (Id.) Thomas further alleges that tive individual defendants deliberately, wil-fully, and wantonly ignored Smith’s obvious and serious medical needs at the substantial risk of his serious injury and death, which constituted deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. (Id. ¶ 36.)

LEGAL STANDARDS

In considering a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), the Court must accept the complaint’s well-pleaded factual allegations as true and draw reasonable inferences from those allegations in the plaintiffs favor. Transit Express, Inc. v. Ettinger, 246 F.3d 1018, 1023 (7th Cir.2001); Mosley v. Klincar, 947 F.2d 1338, 1339 (7th Cir.1991). The Court will grant a motion to dismiss only when “it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.”

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Bluebook (online)
401 F. Supp. 2d 867, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28829, 2005 WL 3091882, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-ex-rel-smith-v-cook-county-sheriff-ilnd-2005.