James v. Contra Costa County

Background

Carrie James and Perry Williams, identified as Levelle Williams’s natural parents, sued Contra Costa County and Does 1-50. The complaint alleged that Levelle Williams was attacked by two inmates on September 23, 2020, and died the next day. The County moved to dismiss the second amended complaint, arguing that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations and that the complaint did not adequately plead municipal liability under Monell v. Department of Social Services. Monell liability is a legal theory under which a local government can be liable when an official policy, custom, or failure to act causes a constitutional violation; a county is not automatically liable for every unconstitutional act by its employees.

Statute of Limitations

For claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the applicable limitations period comes from the state’s personal-injury law. The court stated that California’s period is two years, while federal law determines when a claim accrues. California Emergency Rule 9 tolled the limitations period until October 1, 2020. The period therefore ended on October 1, 2022, and the court observed that the lawsuit, filed on October 10, 2022, was nine days late absent additional tolling.

Delayed Discovery

The parents argued that California’s delayed-discovery rule applied because they initially believed Levelle died from medical malpractice and did not learn of facts implicating the County and sheriff’s deputies until a coroner’s inquest in April 2021. The court explained that a plaintiff must plead the time and manner of discovering the claim and why reasonable diligence could not have led to an earlier discovery. The second amended complaint did not include those supporting facts. The court directed plaintiffs to add the facts described in their declarations and provide more detail about why they could not have discovered the claim sooner.

Equitable Tolling

Plaintiffs also alleged that the limitations period was equitably tolled for 39 days while their tort claim was pending before the Board of Supervisors. Equitable tolling may apply when the first claim gave timely notice, the delay did not prejudice the defendant, and the plaintiff acted in good faith and reasonably in filing the later claim. The County did not dispute the first two requirements but argued that plaintiffs had not explained why they waited 23 months after their tort claim was rejected on November 17, 2020, to file this lawsuit. The court noted that plaintiffs had not explained their delay between learning of the County’s alleged involvement in April 2021 and filing suit in October 2022. It allowed them to add facts that could show good faith, including unsuccessful efforts to find an attorney or COVID-related issues, if supported by their allegations.

Monell Claim

The second cause of action alleged that the County failed to train or adequately train officers to prevent inmate attacks and had a widespread or longstanding custom of allowing such attacks. Plaintiffs also alleged that deputies had information about a planned attack and knew that the two attackers had been involved in earlier beatings.

The court ruled that plaintiffs had not adequately alleged a ratification theory because they did not identify involvement in or ratification of the conduct by a final policymaker. Regarding failure to train, the court stated that isolated or random unconstitutional acts by a non-policy-making employee generally do not establish a municipal policy or custom. Plaintiffs had not alleged enough facts showing either a pattern of similar constitutional violations by untrained employees or the rare circumstance in which the unconstitutional consequences of failing to train were plainly obvious and highly predictable. The court granted leave to add more detail and factual allegations about similar incidents, failures to prevent inmate attacks, or the obviousness of the alleged consequences.

Disposition

The court granted Contra Costa County’s motion to dismiss the second amended complaint with leave to amend. It ordered that the amended complaint be filed by July 21, 2023.