$1.25 Million Settlement, 2000

A California jail staff's neglect of a 35-year-old male schizophrenic's medical needs leads to attempted suicide that leaves him in a vegetative state. Jury verdict finds negligence as the cause.

This case involved a 35-year-old male schizophrenic who was arrested for several misdemeanors and incarcerated in a California jail. The Plaintiff exhibited suicidal tendencies and was placed in a segregated cell, but the jail staff neglected to ensure that bed sheets were not allowed in the cell. The Plaintiff used the bed sheets to hang himself. Jail staff later found the Plaintiff hanging from his cell. Although he was rushed to a local hospital where his life was saved, doctors said he would live the rest of his life in a persistent vegetative state.

The Defendants contended that the Plaintiff was solely responsible for his own injuries, arguing they were neither deliberately indifferent nor negligent to his unstable psychiatric condition. However, CMS&C argued that the Defendants were negligent and therefore the proximate cause of the victim's life-altering injuries. After two daylong mediation sessions, CMS&C was successful in winning a $1.25 million recovery for the Plaintiff.