EDWARD J. DAVILA, District Judge.
After Christy Ann Sanders ("Decedent") died while in custody at the Santa Cruz County Main Jail, Plaintiffs Janet L. Sanders, Larry Sanders, and Daniel Ryan Pierce, by and through his guardian ad litem Janet Sanders ("Plaintiffs"), initiated the above-entitled action against Defendants County of Santa Cruz and Phil Wowak, in his capacity as the county sheriff (collectively, the "County Defendants"), for civil rights violations and related causes of action. In response, the County Defendants filed a Third-Party Complaint against Dignity Health, doing business as Dominican Hospital ("Dominican Hospital"), as well as a number of doctors and medical organizations involved in Decedent's treatment (collectively, "Third Party Defendants"), for express and equitable indemnity.
Presently before the court are six motions directed at the Third-Party Complaint: (1) a Motion to Compel Arbitration filed by Dominican Hospital (Docket Item No. 47); (2) a Motion to Dismiss filed by Roy Martinez, M.D. and Radiology Medical Group of Santa Cruz County, Inc. (Docket Item No. 50); (3) two Motions to Dismiss filed by D. Christopher Danish, D.O., Bradley Whaley, M.D., Marc B. Yellin, M.D., and California Emergency Physicians Medical Group (sued as "Santa Cruz Emergency Physicians Medical Group") (Docket Item Nos. 61, 71)
Subject matter jurisdiction arises under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1367. The court found these matters suitable for decision without oral argument pursuant to Civil Local Rule 7-1(b) and previously vacated the associated hearing. For the reasons explained below, Dominican Hospital's Motion to Compel Arbitration will be granted, while the various Motions to Dismiss will be denied.
Decedent was 27 years of age at the time of her death on August 25, 2012. By that date, Decedent had been incarcerated at the Santa Cruz County Main Jail since on or about August 12, 2012, and was being held on two separate warrants, one involving theft and another involving drug possession.
While at the Main Jail on August 12, 2012, Decedent complained of flank and chest pain and painful inability to breathe. She was taken to Dominican Hospital, where she received a chest x-ray that "showed no infiltration, no consolidation and no widening of the mediastinum." She was released and returned to the Main Jail, and there was no follow up on that information by Defendants.
On August 13, 2012, Decedent contacted the Main Jail's medical personnel and complained of pain to the left rib area that wrapped around her back. She stated the pain was sharp. She was told to contact medical personnel again if the pain worsened.
On August 17, 2012, Decedent was confirmed to restart heroin detox protocol, which was thereafter administered by the Main Jail's medical personnel.
On August 18, 2012, medical personnel responded to a "Code 3," which was initiated because Decedent was experiencing minor seizure-like activity. Decedent stated that she was having difficulty breathing and asked to be taken back to Dominican Hospital. An on-duty nurse and Doctor Helmer advised Decedent, however, that they felt it unnecessary at that time for Decedent to be sent to the hospital.
On August 20, 2012, Decedent advised medical personnel of "pain in [her] entire chest," but her request to be seen for a secondary medical evaluation was denied. On August 23, 2012, Decedent advised medical personnel that she "needed to go to the hospital," that "something was wrong with" her, but that "no one cares."
On August 24, 2012, Decedent told medical personnel that she had a fever and requested a temperature check. Nurse Thomsen said he was unable to provide her with a temperature check. Decedent then stated that she would kill herself. After that statement, Decedent was transferred to the O-13 unit for the night. In the morning, Decedent signed a "no harm contract" and was thereafter returned to her original cell.
On August 25, 2012, medical personnel responded to Decedent's cell and found her pale, non-responsive, and without a pulse or blood pressure. An oral airway was put into place and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was initiated. Lifesaving efforts were continued by medical personnel until paramedics arrived at the scene; however, Decedent had already expired in her cell by that time. She was transported to Sheriff-Coroner's medical facility for further examination.
On August 27, 2012, Dr. Richard Mason, a Forensic Pathologist, completed an autopsy examination of Decedent. Dr. Mason determined the cause of death to be "bilateral pulmonary melectasis with anoxia due to bilateral empyema, severe on right due to pulmonary abscesses, right upper lobe of lung with contributory causes of pulmonary emboli, fatty metamorphosis of liver and Hepatitis C," and that she died of natural causes.
Despite Dr. Mason's findings, Plaintiffs allege that the Main Jail's medical personnel failed to administer proper medical care and failed to monitor the likely consequences of their inaction, which they believe resulted in Decedent's death. They filed the Complaint underlying this action on July 11, 2013.
Prior to her incarceration, on or about August 7, 2012, Decedent presented to the emergency room at Dominican Hospital with complaints of difficulty breathing for the past week, cough with green phlegm, and chills. She had a history of deep vein thrombosis and significant IV drug/heroin use, among other conditions. She was seen by Bradley D. Whaley, M.D., who examined her and diagnosed her with bronchitis, allegedly without obtaining her complete history, chest x-ray, or blood work. She was discharged the same day.
On or about August 13, 2012, Decedent returned to the emergency room at Dominican Hospital. Decedent was in the custody at that time, and she was accompanied by sheriff's deputies. Decedent complained of acute chest pain in her lower ribs, difficulty breathing, and an occasional cough. D. Christopher Danish, D.O. and/or Marc Yellin, M.D. examined Decedent and ordered a chest x-ray and blood work.
Radiologist Roy Martinez, M.D. interpreted Decedent's chest x-ray as showing the presence of a new 3.2 cm density in the right upper lobe of her lung. He provided a differential diagnosis of "round pneumonia versus inflammatory etiology versus neoplasm," and recommended close follow-up. But despite the x-ray that showed a lesion in Decedent's lung and blood work that allegedly pointed to infection, Dr. Danish and Dr. Yelling determined that the x-ray was clear and diagnosed Decedent with pleuritic chest wall pain. They prescribed Motrin and discharged Decedent back to the jail approximately three hours after her arrival at the hospital. No follow-up treatment was recommended or prescribed.
Decedent ultimately died at the jail on August 25, 2012. In the Third Party Complaint, the County Defendants allege that Drs. Danish, Yellin, Martinez and Dominican Hospital misdiagnosed, misrepresented, misinterpreted, and/or failed to alert the County Defendants to Decedents' true medical condition, the lesion shown on her chest x-ray, and the results of her blood work when they discharged Decedent back to the jail. They also allege that James Helmer, M.D., Decedent's primary physician at the Main Jail and an employee of Solvere, was negligent and/or deliberately indifferent to Decedent's serious medical needs.
The Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") mandates that written agreements to arbitrate disputes "shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the avoidance of any contract." 9 U.S.C. § 2. "By its terms, the Act `leaves no place for the exercise of discretion by a district court, but instead mandates that district courts shall direct the parties to proceed to arbitration on issues as to which an arbitration agreement has been signed.'"
If a contract contains an arbitration clause, the clause is presumed valid (
Nonetheless, "arbitration is a matter of contract and a party cannot be required to submit to arbitration any dispute which he has not agreed so to submit."
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a) requires a plaintiff to plead each claim in the complaint with sufficient specificity to "give the defendant fair notice of what the . . . claim is and the grounds upon which it rests."
The County Defendants' Third-Party Complaint contains two claims. The first claim, for express indemnification, is against Dominican Hospital and Solvere. The second claim, for equitable indemnification, is against all Third-Party Defendants, including Dominican Hospital and Solvere.
Dominican Hospital's motion (Docket No. 47) seeks to compel arbitration of both claims. The remaining motions, brought by the other Third-Party Defendants (Docket Nos. 50, 61, 66, 71, 87), seek dismissal of the second claim under Rule 12. Each motion is discussed below.
Dominican Hospital contends that a Hospital Services Agreement (the "Agreement") between it and the County, which was executed in 1994 and was attached to the Third-Party Complaint, requires that the County Defendants' indemnification claims against Dominican Hospital be submitted to arbitration. In response, the County Defendants argue that the Agreement does not contain a valid and enforceable arbitration clause and, even if it does, the present dispute does not fall within its purview.
Under both federal and state law, the threshold question presented by a request to compel arbitration is whether there is an agreement to arbitrate.
The County Defendants contend that Section 7.13 is vague and does not clearly express an intention to arbitrate. Indeed, the word "arbitration" does not appear in the text of Section 7.13; rather, it calls for the referral of disputes to a three-member "Board of Adjustments." The County Defendants state that it is unaware of any organized, pre-existing "Board of Adjustments" and that the term typically refers to a governmental, quasi-governmental, or labor board pre-organized for the purpose of deciding specific categories of regulatory, zoning, or employment matters. For these reasons, the County Defendants believe that Section 7.13 is not a valid and enforceable arbitration clause.
The court applies general state law contract principles — here the law as it is in California — to determine whether a valid written agreement to arbitrate exists.
The County Defendants' restrictive interpretation of Section 7.13 fails under these rules because it is apparent the section is an arbitration clause even though it is not explicitly designated as such.
In addition, Section 7.13 contains "a mechanism to assure a minimum level of impartiality" because both sides are equally represented on the Board of Adjustments, and each side may then equally participate in the selection of, and equally pay, the third member. And since a majority decision by the Board of Adjustments is final and binding on the parties, all of the attributes of an agreement to arbitrate are present.
The County Defendants additionally argue that, even if Section 7.13 is an agreement to arbitrate, the present indemnification dispute falls outside its scope. As indicated, Section 7.13 requires arbitration of "any dispute between the parties hereto regarding the provisions under this Agreement."
"It is well established `that where the contract contains an arbitration clause, there is a presumption of arbitrability.'"
Here, the salient portion of Section 7.13 contains broad language. Indeed, under a straightforward reading, the clause requires that any dispute between the parties, falling under any provision of the Agreement, be submitted to the Board of Adjustments. Since the County Defendants' third-party claims against Dominican Hospital undoubtedly fall under Section 7.8 of the Agreement,
The County Defendants' interpretation of Section 7.13, based primarily on
The Agreement at issue in this case is distinguishable in two important aspects. First, the arbitration clause is not limited solely to disputes over the Agreement's terms; it covers any dispute falling under any provision of the Agreement. While the County Defendants may stop reading Section 7.13 after the phrase "regarding the provisions" in an effort to limit the section's scope to one relating solely to disputes over language, this court may not do so under the applicable rules of interpretation.
Accordingly, since the Agreement contains a valid and enforceable arbitration clause, and since the claims raised by the Third-Party Complaint fall within the scope of that clause, Dominican Hospital's Motion to Compel Arbitration will be granted.
The remaining motions, each brought by Third-Party Defendants other than Dominican Hospital, all seek dismissal of the County's second claim for equitable indemnity, arguing that the County's claim is barred by law. Since most of the arguments overlap, the court will consider them together for ease of organization.
There is no federal right to indemnification provided in 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Although the County may not base its claim for indemnity directly on § 1983, Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allows a defending party to "serve a summons and complaint on a nonparty who is or may be liable to it for all or part of the claim against it." Rule 14 neither creates nor enlarges upon the substantive rights of the parties, but merely provides the procedure for the assertion of those rights under applicable state law.
Here, Plaintiffs' Complaint alleges five causes of action. The only cause of action asserted against the County Defendants is the first one, for violation of § 1983, which seeks to hold the County Defendants liable for general, special, and punitive damages related to Decedent's death.
As the County Defendants point out, Plaintiffs assert a common law negligence claim which rests on the same set of operative facts as the § 1983 claim against the County Defendants. Although the claim is presently asserted against "Does 51-200," it is inescapable that Third-Party Defendants, or at least a portion of them, come within this group's definition: "Sheriff's deputies, detention officers or other employees or agents of the County employed at the Main Jail," "physicians, nurses and other healthcare practitioners who are employees or agents of County employed at Main Jail," and "independent contractors providing medical and/or professional services to inmates brought to Main Jail for treatment of medical needs and conditions while incarcerated at Main Jail."
That being the case and should Plaintiffs prevail on both their § 1983 claim and on their negligence claim, there would be significant overlap between the measure of damages for the two claims, because damages for both would be measured on the same theory of compensation.
Thus, because there is a possible scenario under which Third-Party Defendants may be liable for all or part of the County Defendant's liability to Plaintiffs, the equitable indemnity claim will not be dismissed as barred as matter of law.
Third-Party Defendants make two additional arguments in support of their motions. Neither is meritorious.
Several of the Third-Party Defendants are alleged to have been employed at Dominican Hospital rather than at the Main Jail. These Third-Party Defendants point out that Plaintiffs' allegations of negligence only relate to the supervision and care provided at the Main Jail and not at Dominican Hospital, arguing that the failure of Plaintiffs to make allegations against Dominican Hospital employees invalidates the indemnification claim. Even so, "[a]s a matter of procedure, Rule 14 does not require that the third party defendant be liable to the original plaintiff in order for the original defendant to proceed with his claim against a third party defendant and recover judgment thereon."
Solvere contends that the County has no viable claim for equitable indemnity because of the existence of a contract between Solvere and the County which contains an express indemnity provision. Solvere cites the general principle that "[a]n action does not lie on an implied contract where there exists between the parties a valid express contract which covers the identical subject matter."
Since the court has found no persuasive reason to sustain them, the Third-Party Defendants' motions to dismiss the claim for equitable indemnity will be denied.
For the foregoing reasons, Dominican Hospital's Motion to Compel Arbitration (Docket No. 47) is GRANTED. The claims asserted against Dominican Hospital in the County Defendants' Third-Party Complaint are STAYED pending the completion of arbitration between these parties.
The Motions to Dismiss are DENIED (Docket Nos. 50, 61, 66, 71, 87).