NEEDREPLACE

7 F.Supp.3d 1207

Bridget Nicole REVILLA, et al., Plaintiffs,

v.Stanley GLANZ, Sheriff of Tulsa County, et al., Defendants.

Case No. 13–CV–315–JED–TLW.

United States District Court, N.D. Oklahoma.

Signed March 17, 2014

Motion denied. Daniel E. Smolen, Donald Eugene Smolen, II, Lauren Grace Lambright, Robert Murray Blakemore, Smolen Smolen & Roytman PLLC, Tulsa, OK, for Plaintiffs.

Clark Otto Brewster, Corbin C. Brewster, Guy Anthony Fortney, Brewster & De Angelis PLLC, Tulsa, OK, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

JOHN E. DOWDELL, District Judge.

Before the Court is defendant Stanley Glanz's Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 32), to which plaintiffs have responded (Doc. 36), and Sheriff Glanz has replied (Doc. 39).

I. Background

This action was commenced by one plaintiff, Bridget Nicole Revilla, regarding injuries she allegedly suffered as a result of the “Tulsa County Jail's unconstitutional medical care policies and customs.” (Complaint, Doc. 2). The same day that Ms. Revilla filed the initial Complaint, an Amended Complaint, adding three additional plaintiffs, was filed. (Doc. 4). The additional plaintiffs are: (1) Alma McCaffrey, as the Personal Representative of the Estate of Gregory Brown; (2) Christine Wright, as Special Administrator of the Estate of Lisa Salgado; and (3) Deborah Young, as Special Administrator of the Estate of Gwendolyn Young. All four plaintiffs allege that Sheriff Glanz is liable, in his official and individual capacities, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Oklahoma Constitution, art. 2, §§ 7 and 9. They allege that he maintained and was responsible for a policy, custom, or practice of constitutionally deficient medical care at the Tulsa County Jail, that he was deliberately indifferent to serious risks to inmate health and safety, and that the alleged deliberately indifferent failure to provide medical care resulted in injuries to or the deaths of plaintiffs or their decedents who were incarcerated at the Jail.

Sheriff Glanz seeks dismissal on several grounds, including improper joinder of the three additional plaintiffs in the Amended Complaint, and dismissal of plaintiffs' individual and official capacity claims against Glanz under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Oklahoma Constitution, for failure to state a claim under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Sheriff Glanz also requests that the Court dismiss plaintiffs' requests for punitive damages against him in his official capacity.

II. Dismissal Standards

In considering a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal motion, a court must determine whether the plaintiff has stated a claim upon which relief may be granted. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require “a short and plain statement of the claim to show that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2). A complaint must provide “more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). The standard does “not require a heightened fact pleading of specifics, but only enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face,” and the factual allegations “must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Id. at 555–56, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (citations omitted). “Asking for plausible grounds ... does not impose a probability requirement at the pleading stage; it simply calls for enough facts to raise a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence [supporting the claim]. And, of course, a well-pleaded complaint may proceed even if it strikes a savvy judge that actual proof of those facts is improbable, and ‘that a recovery is very remote and unlikely.’ ” Id. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955. “Once a claim has been stated adequately, it may be supported by showing any set of facts consistent with the allegations in the complaint.” Id. at 562, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

Twombly articulated the pleading standard for all civil actions. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 684, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). For the purpose of making the dismissal determination, a court must accept all the well-pleaded factual allegations of the complaint as true, even if doubtful, and must construe the allegations in the light most favorable to the claimant. See Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955; Alvarado v. KOB–TV, L.L.C., 493 F.3d 1210, 1215 (10th Cir.2007).

III. DiscussionA. Joinder of Plaintiffs

Sheriff Glanz seeks dismissal of plaintiffs McCaffrey, Wright, and Young on misjoinder grounds. He asserts that “each plaintiff's claims arise from separate occurrences at different times,” and that joinder of their claims is thus improper under Fed.R.Civ.P. 20, such that dismissal is appropriate under Fed.R.Civ.P. 21. (Doc. 32 at 4). In the alternative, Glanz requests severance of each of the plaintiffs. Rule 20(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governs permissive joinder of plaintiffs. The rule provides:

Persons may join in one action as plaintiffs if:

(A) they assert any right to relief jointly, severally, or in the alternative with respect to or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences; and

(B) any question of law or fact common to all plaintiffs will arise in the action.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 20(a)(1). “Misjoinder of parties is not a ground for dismissing an action. On motion or on its own, the court may at any time, on just terms, add or drop a party. The court may also sever any claim against a party.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 21.

Sheriff Glanz does not argue that there is no “question of law or fact common to all plaintiffs.” See Fed.R.Civ.P. 20(a)(1)(B). However, the parties dispute whether these plaintiffs seek relief arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 20(a)(1)(A). The courts have adopted a case-by-case approach as to whether a particular factual situation constitutes a transaction or occurrence for purposes of Rule 20. Jacobs v. Watson Pharm., Inc., 10–CV–120–TCK, 2011 WL 2216257, *2 (June 7, 2011) (citations omitted). Borrowing from the judicial construction of “transaction or occurrence” used in Fed.R.Civ.P. 13(a), courts construing the meaning of transaction and occurrence in Rule 20 have generally applied the “logical relationship” test. Id. That is, in determining whether claims arise out of the same series of transactions or occurrences, “all logically related events entitling a person to institute a legal action against another generally are regarded as comprising a transaction or occurrence.” Id. (quoting 7 Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller, Mary Kay Kane, Richard L. Marcus, Federal Practice & Procedure, § 1653 (3d ed.2010)).

Plaintiffs argue that permissive joinder is appropriate under Rule 20(a) because all of the plaintiffs challenge the “same systemic deficiencies with the Tulsa County Jail's health services program and all allege that there is an affirmative causal nexus between common health policies, practices and/or customs and the underlying constitutional violations and injuries.” (Doc. 36 at 5–6). The Court recognizes that there are differences in the specific dates of incarceration with respect to each plaintiff's claim and the specific ailments which they assert were improperly treated or not treated at all. Also, the particular medical staff involved in each incident are not identical. However, the injuries / deaths alleged to have resulted from systemic deficiencies in medical care at the Jail were within a time frame of approximately 18 months, between June 2011 and February 2013. There is also overlap between the specific medical staff who are alleged to have provided dangerously negligent care to different plaintiffs pursuant to a Jail policy, custom, or practice of providing constitutionally deficient medical care during that time frame. These allegations present a logical relationship between the circumstances underlying the claims such that the Court does not find joinder of the plaintiffs to be improper. See, e.g., Jacobs, 2011 WL 2216257 (finding joinder of plaintiffs proper where the same type of fentanyl patches were alleged to have been prescribed by different doctors at different times and caused deaths by overdose nearly a year apart); Laureano v. Goord, 06–Civ–7845(SHS)(RLE), 2007 WL 2826649 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 31, 2007), report and recommendation adopted, 2007 WL 2852770 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 28, 2007) (finding joinder of two plaintiffs who asserted claims based upon the deaths of two prison inmates in the same prison system: “Plaintiffs claim that DOCS [Department of Correctional Services] and the OMH [Office of Mental Health] policy makers knowingly disregarded serious risks to the safety of seriously mentally ill inmates through understaffing and other systemic deficiencies.... [T]hese claims are logically related in that they are challenges to the DOCS and OMH mental health practices and policies [the inmates] were subjected to by virtue of being in DOCS custody. Therefore, they arise out of the same transaction or occurrence such that joinder is appropriate.”).

Even properly joined claims may be severed under Fed.R.Civ.P. 21, or the Court may order separate trials of any claims under Fed.R.Civ.P. 42(b). The Court finds that judicial economy would be served by denying severance at this time, as the common issues of law and fact and logical relationship between the claims would likely result in duplicative discovery and dispositive motions covering common issues of law and fact. There is a substantial overlap of witnesses, although as noted they are not identical as between each plaintiff's claims.

For the foregoing reasons, the request to dismiss the three plaintiffs is denied. The denial of Sheriff Glanz's alternate request for severance of plaintiffs' claims at this time is without prejudice to any of the parties reasserting a request for severance prior...