An appeals court Wednesday upheld a multimillion-dollar verdict reached against San Diego County in the case of an Encinitas man who suffered serious brain damage following his arrest by sheriff’s deputies.
David Collins was awarded more than $12.6 million by a jury in 2019 for injuries he suffered after falling and striking his head while in custody at the Vista Detention Center, with jurors finding that sheriff’s deputies and jail nurses were negligent regarding his arrest and the assessment of his medical condition, leading to life-altering injuries.
Collins was arrested in November 2016 on suspicion of being drunk in public, though his attorneys said he was actually suffering from a condition called hyponatremia, which is caused by a sodium deficiency and resulted in slurred speech, hallucinations, and difficulty walking.
After falling twice at the jail, his attorneys alleged he was not immediately taken to a hospital, and when he did arrive, doctors attempted to raise his sodium levels, resulting in the development of an additional brain injury that caused permanent damage. At trial, defense medical experts testified Collins will require around-the-clock medical care for life.
He sued San Diego County, as well as the deputies and medical staff involved, and was awarded $12,617,674, though a judge later reduced that award by half. He also sued Palomar Health, which settled with him for $2.75 million prior to the trial.
The county appealed, contending the verdict should have been reversed or the case should be retried based on several alleged procedural errors, including an apparent inconsistency in the jury’s findings that two deputies were justified in arresting Collins, yet were negligent.
A three-justice panel of the Fourth District Court of Appeal wrote that even if the deputies were justified in arresting Collins due to his apparent public intoxication, they could have been negligent in interrupting attempts by a paramedic to assess his medical condition. The ruling cites testimony indicating that deputies handcuffed Collins and took him away a few minutes after a paramedic began assessing him.
County attorneys also alleged the jury was incorrectly instructed regarding who could be held liable, arguing the deputies should have been immune from liability due to harm caused by Palomar Health physicians or for injuries Collins sustained while in jail.
The appellate panel disagreed, ruling the county was relying on a state statute immunizing public entities and their employees for failing to obtain prisoners’ medical care after arrest in certain circumstances. The panel wrote that the alleged negligence — interrupting the paramedic and failing to urgently summon medical care for Collins — occurred prior to the arrest.
The panel also disagreed with the county’s assertion that one of the jail nurses should not have been held liable for an allegedly negligent evaluation of Collins. The county alleged that the nurse was only evaluating Collins’ fitness for jail and shouldn’t have been held liable for negligent diagnosis and treatment, but the panel ruled that “the examination by a registered nurse here was for medical treatment.”
