United States Tenth Circuit

Adverse rulings and judgments against plaintiff in a case brought under state tort law and 42 U.S.C. section 1983 against a state's family and youth agency and employees involving the adoption and subsequent death of a child are affirmed for the most part, but reversed as to summary judgment for an employee where there were disputed questions of material fact as to whether she properly exercised her professional judgment by failing to investigate certain events that took place while she was the primary social worker assigned to the child's case.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/27/2006
• Published 07/27/2006

Judges

• LUCERO, Circuit Judge., Before LUCERO, BALDOCK, and McCONNELL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Paul J. Kennedy (Adam S. Baker with him on the briefs), Kennedy & Han, Albuquerque, NM, appearing for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Michael Dickman, Assistant Attorney General, Santa Fe, NM, for Defendant-Appellee, Children, Youth and Families Department, New Mexico., Randolph B. Felker, Felker, Ish, Hatcher, Ritchie, Sullivan & Geer, Santa Fe, NM, Timothy V. Flynn-O'Brien, Albuquerque, NM, appearing for Defendants-Appellees.