Vila ex rel. estate of Vila v. Miami-Dade County

65 F. Supp. 3d 1371, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174326, 2014 WL 6976273
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedNovember 25, 2014
DocketCase No. 14-CV-21346
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 65 F. Supp. 3d 1371 (Vila ex rel. estate of Vila v. Miami-Dade County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vila ex rel. estate of Vila v. Miami-Dade County, 65 F. Supp. 3d 1371, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174326, 2014 WL 6976273 (S.D. Fla. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER

PAUL C. HUCK, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE is before the Court on Miami-Dade County’s (the “County”) and the Public Health Trust’s (the “Trust”) Motion to Dismiss the Second Amended Complaint [Doc. No. 34] and the City of Miami’s (the “City”), Officer Surami Kelly’s, and Officer A. Guerra’s Motion to Dismiss the Second Amended Complaint [1375]*1375[Doc. No. 31]. For the following reasons, the Defendants’ motions are granted.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs Second Amended Complaint1 [Doc. No. 29] asserts twenty federal- and state-law claims arising from the tragic death of Plaintiffs adult son, Louis Vila, on March 16, 2012. The following facts are taken from the Second Amended Complaint, as the Court is bound to accept Plaintiffs well-pleaded factual allegations as true on a motion to dismiss. See St. Joseph’s Hosp., Inc. v. Hosp. Corp. of Am., 795 F.2d 948, 954 (11th Cir.1986).

Plaintiff alleges that Mr. Vila had “psychological problems,” had been under the “constant care and supervision of psychiatrists” since 2001, and had been discharged from the psychiatric unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital (the “Hospital”) on March 6, 2014.2d Am. Compl. ¶¶ 21-24. Mr. Vila lived, with his parents, and Plaintiff and Mr. Vila’s sisters cared for him. Id. ¶ 22. On March 10, 2012 — four days after his discharge from the Hospital’s psychiatric unit — Mr. Vila “had become agitated” at the prospect of his father leaving the house. Id. ¶ 27. Plaintiff alleges that she called the Miami Police Department to request assistance with Mr. Vila. Id. Plaintiff alleges that she told the dispatcher that Mr. Vila had recently been discharged from a psychiatric hospital. Id.

Officer Surami Kelly responded to Plaintiffs call. Officer Kelly requested that Mr. Vila step outside. Id. ¶ 35. Once outside, Mr, Vila became even more upset, and “began to run around in an agitated state,” ignoring Officer Kelly’s commands. Id. ¶¶ 36-38. Plaintiff alleges that Officer Kelly then struck Mr. Vila with her baton, subdued him with the assistance of Mr. Vila’s father and other bystanders, handcuffed him, and arrested him. Id. ¶¶ 37-41. -Shortly thereafter, Officer A. Guerra arrived on the scene, and Plaintiff alleges that Officers Kelly and Guerra jointly decided to arrest Mr. Vila and take him to jail. Id. ¶¶ 42-44.

Officers Kelly and Guerra took Mr. Vila to the Miami-Dade County Pretrial Detention Center (the “Detention Center”). Plaintiff alleges that one of the officers stated on an intake form that Mr. Vila “did suffer from psychiatric and mental health issues.” Id. ¶ 44. Plaintiff indicates that unnamed Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department (“Corrections”) staff screened Mr. Vila and diagnosed him with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Id. ¶ 45. Plaintiff further alleges that the .unidentified Corrections staff relied on Mr. Vila for a description of his current medications, and Mr. Vila — in his agitated state — did not provide a complete inventory of the medicines he was prescribed before his March 6 discharge from the Hospital. Id. ¶ 46.

Mr. Vila spent the next three days in the Detention Center without receiving any of his prescribed medication. Though Corrections staff eventually moved Mr. Vila to the Detention Center’s psychiatric ward and provided him with a psychiatric evaluation, Plaintiff alleges that Mr. Vila’s mental condition continued to worsen. Id. ¶¶ 49-53. Because he did not receive his medication, Plaintiff alleges that Mr. Vila became increasingly “agitated” and “en-[1376]*1376gag[ed] in bizarre behavior.” Id. ¶ 49-50. Then, on March 13 — the first day that Mr. Vila received any medication since his arrest — Plaintiff alleges that Mr. Vila fell and broke his wrist. Id. ¶ 54. ;

Corrections staff transferred Mr. Vila to the Hospital’s Ward D for treatment of his broken wrist. • Id. ¶ 55. Plaintiff alleges that “one of the attending physicians” in Ward D ordered that Mr. Vila receive Risperidone, the anti-psychotic medication which had previously been prescribed for Mr. Vila upon his March. 6 discharge from _ the Hospital’s psychiatric unit. Id. ¶¶ 57-58. Mr. Vila spent the next three days shackled to his bed. Id. V 61.

At around 7 a.m. on the morning of March 16, a Hospital staff member checked on Mr. Vila and found him unconscious. Id. ¶ 63. Hospital staff pronounced Mr. Vila dead shortly thereafter. Id. ¶ 64.

Plaintiff alleges that unidentified Hospital and Corrections staff caused Mr. Vila’s death by improperly shackling him to his bed in Ward D. Id. ¶ 65. Plaintiff alleges that the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy, and concluded that Mr. Vila died of a blood clot that had formed in his lower leg. Id. Plaintiff alleges that the Medical Examiner found that the shackles on Mr. Vila’s leg caused the clot to form. Id.

Plaintiff also alleges a litany of negligent or unconstitutional acts leading up to Mr. Vila’s death. Plaintiff claims that the City should have dispatched a crisis unit trained in dealing with the mentally ill; that Officers Kelly and Guerra arrested Mr. Vila without probable- cause and should have taken him to a psychiatric facility, rather than jail; that the County denied Mr. Vila adequate medical care by placing him in detention, rather than In a psychiatric facility; that the County unconstitutionally withheld Mr. Vila’s prescribed medications- while he was in Corrections’ custody;- and that when Mr. Vila finally did receive his medication, Trust staff administered it improperly. Id. ¶¶ 35-63.

Plaintiff alleges that these acts are the product of entrenched practices tacitly endorsed by the policymakers for the City, the County, and the Trust. Plaintiff alleges that the relevant County and Trust policymakers '“were on notice” of institutional deficiencies in the treatment of mentally ill detainees, as evidenced by a 2004 grand jury report on Corrections treatment of mentally ill inmates; a 2008 investigation by the United States Department of Justice into alleged civil rights violations; and a memorandum prepared by then-County Mayor Carlos Alvarez that described a plan to improve conditions for mentally ill inmates. Id. ¶¶ 74, 84-85. Plaintiff contends that Defendants “made improvements” following the mayor’s memorandum, but Defendants “remained deliberately indifferent to the known unlawful deficiencies and failed to take basic steps to correct” the inadequacies identified by the Department of Justice, Id. ¶ 87. Plaintiff similarly alleges that City policymakers were on notice of a need to improve their emergency response protocols to calls involving the mentally ill, as evidenced by the City’s enactment of a “Crisis Intervention Policy.”

ANALYSIS

In her Second Amended Complaint, Plaintiff asserts twenty claims against Defendants. Plaintiff alleges violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the County and the Trust for failing to provide adequate medical care; against the individual officers for an unlawful seizure and deliberate indifference; and against the City for failing to train its officers to properly respond to the mentally ill. Plaintiff also alleges [1377]

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Bluebook (online)
65 F. Supp. 3d 1371, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174326, 2014 WL 6976273, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vila-ex-rel-estate-of-vila-v-miami-dade-county-flsd-2014.