In B.B. v. County of Los Angeles, partially published on July 10, 2018 and modified on July 12, 2018, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 3 affirmed in part and reversed in part a judgment against the defendant county and its deputies in a case in which a suspect passed away after deputy use of force. The jury apportioned the decedent 40% fault for his own death, found two deputies each 20% at fault, and allocated 20% fault to the remaining deputies. The jury awarded $8 million in noneconomic damages. The court entered judgment against one of the deputies for the full amount of the award, on the ground that the jury found he intentionally harmed the decedent.
The appellate court reversed this ruling. It ruled that in personal injury and wrongful death cases, Civil Code section 1431.2 (aka Proposition 51) requires that noneconomic damages be apportioned as to all defendants according to their respective fault for the injury. It declined to follow case law from other courts holding or stating in dictum that intentional tortfeasors are not entitled to have the noneconomic judgments against them reduced.
The appellate court also reversed summary adjudication of the plaintiffs' Civil Code section 52.1 (Bane Act) cause of action. The trial court ruled that because there was probable cause to arrest the decedent, the use of excessive force was not sufficient in itself to establish Bane Act liability; instead, the plaintiffs had to show some threat, coercion, or intimidation independent of the violation of the civil right itself. The appellate court ruled that this standard applies only where the violation of the civil right results from negligence or unintentional error. Where the violation is intentional or spiteful, however, the threat, coercion, or intimidation inherent in the violation of the civil right is sufficient. There must be a showing that the defendant had the specific intent to violate the subject's civil rights. The plaintiffs' opposition to summary adjudication presented sufficient evidence to raise a triable issue of fact on whether the defendants deliberately subjected the decedent to excessive force beyond that necessary to make the arrest. Once the deputles' use of force crossed that threshold, their conduct became a coercive interference with the decedent's civil rights as proscribed by the Bane Act.
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