Miles v. Fresno County Medical WellPath

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California adopted findings and recommendations concerning screening of Samuel Jay Miles’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. The court allowed Eighth Amendment deliberate-indifference claims to proceed against twelve defendants and dismissed Mary Akioyame, Maisa Lao, Johana Luna, and Wellpath for failure to allege sufficient facts establishing constitutional violations or a policy, custom, or decision attributable to Wellpath.

Holdings

1. Dismissal was proper because Miles failed to allege facts showing that these defendants personally participated in or caused a constitutional violation; in particular, he alleged no actionable conduct by Luna or Lao and did not allege that Akioyame failed to provide needed medical care.
2. Wellpath was properly dismissed because Miles failed to allege that an official policy, custom, or decision of the private entity caused the alleged constitutional violation.
3. The findings and recommendations were adopted in full; the action proceeds on Eighth Amendment deliberate-indifference claims against Alvarez, Arce, Buchanan, Cagara, Duran, Gill, Guerrero, Nunez, Ramirez, Soua, Thao, and Zaragoza, while Akioyame, Lao, Luna, and Wellpath are dismissed.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the magistrate judge's recommendation to dismiss Mary Akioyame, Johana Luna, Maisa Lao, and Fresno County Wellpath should be adopted after de novo review.
2. Whether Miles adequately pleaded a § 1983 Monell claim against Wellpath by alleging that a policy, custom, or decision of the private entity caused a constitutional violation.

Disposition

other