United States Ninth Circuit

In a claim of Constitutional violations committed by officers and employees of the Public Health Service on a prisoner whose repeatedly untreated penile cancer resulted in his death, denial of a motion to dismiss is affirmed where 42 U.S.C. section 233(a) of the Federal Tort Claims Act does not provide a substitute for Bivens claims and thus does not entitle federal agents to absolute immunity from claims alleging Constitutional torts.

Appellate Information

• Argued 08/15/2008
• Decided 10/02/2008
• Published 10/02/2008

Judges

• MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge:, Before:  STEPHEN REINHARDT, MARSHA S. BERZON, and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Jeffrey Clair, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, D.C., for the amicus.


• For Appellees:
  
• John K. Rubiner, Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks & Lincenberg, P.C., Los Angeles, CA;  Matthew S. Freedus and Robert Graham, Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, Washington, D.C., for the defendants-appellants., Adele P. Kimmel, Public Justice, P.C., Washington, D.C.;  Conal Doyle, Willoughby Doyle LLP, Oakland, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellees.