Administration of Estate

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Alfredo Miranda v. County of Lake, et al.

Case No.: 17-1603

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and EASTERBROOK and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Administration of Estate

In the fall of 2011, Lyvita Gomes failed to show up for jury duty. This minor infraction triggered a series of events that led to her untimely death in the early days of 2012. She wound up in the county jail, where she refused to eat and drink. The medical providers who worked at the Jail did little other than monitoring as she wasted away in her cell. By the time she was sent to the hospital, it was too late to save her.

Alfredo Miranda, the administrator of Gomes’s estate, brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and assorted state-law theories against Lake County, the Jail officials (the “County defendants”), and Correct Care Solutions (CCS, the Jail’s contract medical provider) and its employees (the “medical defendants”). The district court dismissed the County defendants at summary judgment. The medical defendants proceeded to trial, but halfway through the proceeding the court granted judgment as a matter of law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a) for them on some claims. The Estate prevailed to a modest degree on another claim, and part of the case resulted in a mistrial. Our principal ruling in response to the Estate’s appeal is that the Rule 50(a) judgment was premature, and so further proceedings are necessary.

Reversed and Remanded

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.