State Case: Prisoner Medical Malpractice, Other Torts

California law allows plaintiffs to sue for many types of “torts,” which are bad acts or violations of legal duties that inflict some type of physical or mental injury.  Some of the tort law is common law developed in court cases and some is set by statutes. 

Among the torts that a plaintiff might allege are assault, battery, false imprisonment (See, e.g., Shoye v. County of Los Angeles (2012) 203 Cal. App. 4th 947, 953, 137 Cal. Rptr. 3d 839] (false imprisonment due to mistaken identification as a person who violated parole)), wrongful death (See, e.g., Lucas v. County of Los Angeles (1996) 47 Cal. App. 4th 277, 282-283, 54 Cal. Rptr. 2d 655),  medical malpractice, malicious prosecution, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, wrongful taking of or damage to personal property.

A person might allege that a prison official or employee violated the duty on officials to protect them from foreseeable harm or to abstain from imposing cruel, corporal, or unusual punishments or punishments not “authorized by the Director of Corrections.” Penal Code §§ 2651-2652. However, a person in prison cannot obtain damages as a remedy for a violation of the California Constitution’s cruel and unusual punishment clause (California Constitution, Article I, § 17); Giraldo v. California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation (2008) 168 Cal. App. 4th 231, 250-252, 85 Cal. Rptr. 3d 371 (case alleging that person who is transgender (male-to-female) in prison suffered sexual assaults).

In any tort case, the plaintiff must show that the defendant acted with a particular mental state, such as intentionally or negligently; the mental state that must be shown depends on the type of tort being alleged.  People in prison do not have to show any greater degree of harm or level of malicious intent than other tort plaintiffs.

A plaintiff in a state tort case usually asks for money damages.  Unlike federal civil rights (42 U.S.C. § 1983) cases, there are no special limits regarding damages awards in cases involving people in prison.  However, the state law does impose some limits that bar “prisoners” from suing “public entities” and/or their employees for many types of wrongful acts.  The immunities are set forth in the Government Claims Act (Government Code § 810, et seq., and are discussed in some of the articles linked below this article.

A person in prison can also sue the state or a state official in a state civil case for declaratory relief (an order setting forth the rights or the parties) or injunctive relief (an order requiring officials to take or not take some particular action). See, e.g., De Lancie v. Superior Court (1982) 31 Cal. 3d 865, 877 183 Cal. Rptr. 866 (finding proper cause of action in request for declaratory and injunctive relief for jail officials’ alleged violation of Penal Code §§ 2600 and 2601).  An action seeking injunctive or declaratory relief that is based on a violation of state law cannot be filed in federal court because the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits federal courts from enforcing compliance with state law. Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman (1984) 465 U.S. 89, 104 S. Ct. 900, 79 L. Ed. 2d 67. 

The state and state officials do not have immunity from claims for declaratory or injunctive relief. Government Code § 814; Government Code § 844.6(a).

Also, attorney fees could be available for work done to gain injunctive relief if the suit vindicates important rights affecting the public interest.  Thus, a person who is seeking money damages may want to include a request for injunctive or declaratory relief in the same suit as a request for money damages.  However, it is usually much easier for a person to obtain injunctive relief through a state court petition for writ of habeas corpus.

A plaintiff bringing a medical malpractice case against a health care provider must give the defendant notice of the intention to sue at least 90 days before filing the suit. California Code of Civil Procedure § 364(a).  If the notice is served within 90 days of the expiration of the statute of limitations, the time for filing the action is extended to 90 days after service of the notice. Code of Civil Procedure § 364(d).

It is no longer necessary for the plaintiff to file a notice with the Medical Board, as former California Code of Civil Procedure § 364.1 has been repealed.

People who are taken to a medical facility outside the prison, where they are injured by negligent or incompetent medical care, may be able to sue the outside medical care provider without being subject to the special rules regarding suits against government officials by incarcerated people. The timeline for am incarcerated person to file the lawsuit will be extended for two years past the regular statute of limitations. See, e.g., Brooks v. Mercy Hospital (2016) 1 Cal. App. 5th 1, 204 Cal.Rptr.3d 289.

While this article appears on our website, it would be inaccurate to credit our firm with the content.  Instead, credit must be attributed to the Prison Law Office in Folsom, California and their excellent treatise, California Prison and Parole Law Handbook, from which much of the content in this article is drawn.