United States Ninth Circuit

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit brought against a social worker and supervisor arising from the social worker's investigation and a subsequent child dependency petition, dismissal of claims based on allegedly false petition statements is reversed where: 1) Doe v. Lebbos, 348 F.3d 820 (9th Cir. 2003), is overruled; and 2) social workers do not have absolute immunity from claims that they fabricated evidence during an investigation or made false statements in a dependency petition affidavit that they signed under penalty of perjury.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/12/2007
• Decided 01/24/2008
• Published 01/24/2008

Judges

• PER CURIAM:, Before:  ALEX KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, STEPHEN REINHARDT, ANDREW J. KLEINFELD, HAWKINS, KIM McLANE WARDLAW, W. FLETCHER, RONALD M. GOULD, RICHARD A. PAEZ, MARSHA S. BERZON, RICHARD R. CLIFTON and SANDRA S. IKUTA, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert R. Powell and Dennis R. Ingols, The Law Offices of Robert R. Powell, San Jose, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Melissa R. Kiniyalocts, Deputy County Counsel, and Ann Miller-Ravel, County Counsel, Santa Clara County, San Jose, CA, for the defendants-appellees.