Estate – Sufficiency of Evidence

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Valerie McCann, et al. Ogle County, Illinois, et al.

Case No.: 17-3139

Officials: AUER, HAMILTON, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Estate – Sufficiency of Evidence

Patrick McCann died from a doctor’s over-prescription of methadone while detained and awaiting trial at the Ogle County Correctional Center. His estate brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Ogle County and a host of county officials and other individuals, including the doctor and nurse who cared for McCann while he was incarcerated, alleging deliberate indifference to McCann’s severe burn wounds and related medical needs. After the treating physician and his private employer settled the claims against them, the district court entered summary judgment for the remaining defendants, concluding that the evidence did not show that any individual defendant acted with deliberate indifference in treating McCann.

Since the district court’s decision, this court decided Miranda v. County of Lake, 900 F.3d 335 (7th Cir. 2018), replacing deliberate indifference with a standard requiring a showing of objective reasonableness for a claim challenging the medical care provided to a pretrial detainee like McCann. Measuring the record evidence under this new standard, we affirm the district court’s award of summary judgment to the individual defendants. So, too, do we affirm the district court’s determination that the record evidence did not support a claim for municipal liability against Ogle County under Monell v. Dep’t of Social Services of New York, 436 U.S. 658 (1978).

Affirmed
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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.