On May 21, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California approved a $1 million settlement paid by San Diego County Jail medical provider Coast Correctional Medical Group (CCMG), resolving a suit alleging that a detainee’s untreated medical condition led to a debilitating stroke that left her severely brain damaged. The Court had previously approved a $9.5 million settlement with the County and its employees for the catastrophic injuries suffered by the detainee, Colleen Garot.

When she was booked into the jail in April 2018, Garot had a black eye and abrasions on her forehead. She was interviewed during the intake process and later by a CCMG nurse practitioner but received no medical care. The next day, Garot said that she had fallen off her top bunk during the night and lost consciousness; she had bruising and a bump on her head for which she was given an ice pack.

That evening she was seen by Dr. Quoc Tran, who was independently subcontracted by CCMG. He documented her injuries and noted that she also had “tremors and an unsteady gait.” She was ordered to be monitored and placed on lower bunk/tier status, but no treatment was provided. One day later, guards put Garot in a safety cell after observing that she made “repeated, nonsensical statements”; her condition deteriorated, she began hallucinating and was “observed walking naked around her cell, trying to climb the wall.”

CCMG’s Dr. Freidrike Von Lintig examined Garot—but only through the cell door—and observed her condition. But she wrote that “no acute [m]edical issues [were] noted at this time.” Garot suffered a seizure twenty minutes later and was taken to a hospital, where doctors found that she had “a skull fracture, a subdural hematoma, and encephalopathy,” which resulted in brain damage that left her “completely incapacitated.”

Garot’s conservators filed suit, seeking $25.2 million for medical costs and non-economic damages. The $9.5 million settlement with San Diego County was found to be made in good faith by the district court on March 21, 2023. See: Rainey v. Cty. of San Diego, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49060 (S.D. Cal.). Von Lintig, CCMG and related defendants later moved the district court to approve their separate settlement for $1 million.

In granting that motion, the district court found that their settlement also was made in good faith, and although not proportionate to the medical defendants’ share of liability, it was reasonable and there was no evidence of fraud or collusion. Other defendants had objected to the settlement, arguing it was disproportional to the settling parties’ potential liability and would extinguish the other defendants’ cross-claims.

But the district court found that Von Lintig bore “a higher proportion of liability in light of her expertise as a medical physician, her failure to review Ms. Garot’s medical chart, her decision not to request admission to Ms. Garot’s cell to conduct a thorough evaluation, and her failure to call for emergency medical help.” However, $1 million was the extent of the settling defendants’ insurance policy; moreover, CCMG was underinsured and now “a defunct company with no assets.” Von Lintig’s medical license had also been suspended, and she had “no personal financial resources available to contribute to a higher settlement amount.” Accordingly, the district court approved the settlement. See: Rainey v. Cty. of San Diego, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118380 (S.D. Cal.).

But in a separate ruling on May 8, 2024, the Court rejected a proposed $775,379.96 settlement offer by Dr. Tran. Again, other defendants objected, calling the payout a “manifest injustice.” The district court held that Tran had relied on a preliminary and incomplete estimate for Garot’s medical expenses when making his settlement offer. He had a “high level of relative culpability” because he was a trained doctor and had evaluated Garot after she fell from her bunk, yet he failed to recognize signs of head trauma and did not provide adequate care.

Nor had Tran provided evidence of his financial resources to determine whether he could contribute personal funds beyond the remaining limit of his insurance policy. While he was allowed to file a renewed settlement motion, he “must submit evidence of all applicable insurance policies and evidence of his financial assets,” the district court said. See: Rainey v. Cty. of San Diego, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118387 (S.D. Cal.).

Claims against Tran and the remaining defendants were still headed to trial in early 2025, and PLN will update developments as they become available. Throughout their suit, Garot’s conservators have been represented by attorney Steve Hoffman of his eponymous law office, along with fellow San Diego attorney Grace S. Jun, plus attorneys Eugene G. Iredale and Julia Yoo of Iredale & Yoo, APC, also in San Diego. See: Rainey v. Cty. of San Diego, USDC (S.D. Cal.), Case No. 3:19-cv-01650.

As PLN reported, Von Lintig was criminally charged in the 2019 death of another detainee, Elisa Serna, who announced her active heroin addiction when booked. Yet jailers and medical staff stood by and watched as she banged her head against her cell wall and died of untreated withdrawal symptoms. A jury deadlocked at Von Lintig’s trial in February 2024, and charges against her were then dismissed. [See: PLN, May 2024, p.48.]

The payout for Garot’s suit was the largest of a total that exceeded $17.15 million made by the County in 2023 for jail detainee claims. By then, settlement payouts totaling $42 million had been made over the previous seven years since 2016—an average of $6 million per year.  

Additional source: KFMB

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login