Poddar informed Moore, his therapist, that he was going to kill an unnamed girl, readily identifiable as Tatiana, when she returned hom from spending the summer in Brazil. 0000012587 00000 n In the landmark case of Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108 [70 Cal. The justices then review the annotated memos themselves prior to conference. Plaintiffs' third cause of action, entitled “Abandonment of a Dangerous Patient,” seeks $10,000 punitive damages against defendant Powelson. At this stage we are unaware, of course, precisely how Moore responded to Powelson's actions;  he may have debated the confinement issue with Powelson, for example, or taken no initiative whatsoever, perhaps because he respected Powelson's judgment, feared for his future at the hospital, or simply recognized that the proverbial handwriting was on the wall. Moore, with the concurrence of Dr. Gold, who had initially examined Poddar, and Dr. Yandell, assistant to the director of the department of psychiatry, decided that Poddar should be committed for observation in a mental hospital. 703.) In Evidence Code section 1014, it established a broad rule of privilege to protect confidential communications between patient and psychotherapist. The Veterans Administration arranged for the patient to work on a local farm, but did not warn the farmer of the man's background. All rights reserved. (a), § 323 and com. Government Code section 856 bars imposition of liability upon defendant therapists for their determination to refrain from detaining Poddar and Welfare and Institutions Code section 5154 protects defendant police officers from civil liability for releasing Poddar after his brief confinement. (Johnson v. State of California, supra, 69 Cal.2d at pp. Morally questionable, the rule owes its survival to “the difficulties of setting any standards of unselfish service to fellow men, and of making any workable rule to cover possible situations where fifty people might fail to rescue․”  (Prosser, Torts (4th ed. ), This assumption strays from reality. (See also Elton v. County of Orange (1970) 3 Cal.App.3d 1053, 1057–1058, 84 Cal.Rptr. Thus, Justice Peters, quoting fromHeaven v. Confronting, finally, the question whether the defendant police officers are immune from liability for releasing Poddar after his brief confinement, we conclude that they are. ), 17. 18. Rejecting the contention that proof of a deliberate intention by the manufacturer to injure the users was essential to punitive damages, the court stated that “malice in fact, sufficient to support an award of punitive damages on the basis of malice as that term is used in Civil Code section 3294, may be established by a showing that the defendant's wrongful conduct was wilful, intentional, and done in reckless disregard of its possible results.”  (251 Cal.App.2d at p. 713, 60 Cal.Rptr. Notwithstanding the lack of any “special relationship” between the Veterans Administration and the wife, the court found the Veterans Administration liable for the wrongful death of the wife. For instance, in the case of Rowland vs. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.ed108 [79 Cal.Rptr, 97445.P.2d561, 32A.L.R.3d496]. at p. Defendants, however, may properly claim immunity from liability for their failure to confine Poddar. Again the court distinguished Richards on the ground that “[S]pecial circumstances which impose a greater potentiality of foreseeable risk or more serious injury, or require a lesser burden of preventative action, may be deemed to impose an unreasonable risk on, and a legal duty to, third persons.”  (61 Cal.2d at p. 444, 39 Cal.Rptr. Primarily, the relationship between defendant therapists and Poddar as their patient imposes the described duty to warn. at p. 6, 393 P.2d at p. 1226, 1255. Plaintiffs, Tatiana's mother and father, filed separate but virtually identical second amended complaints. Tarasoff parents filed a law suit against regents of University of California, accusing them on not detaining a dangerous patient, no warning about a dangerous patient, and abandonment of a dangerous patient. Public employees thus no longer have a significant reason to fear liability as they go about their official tasks. WRIGHT, C.J., and MOSK, SULLIVAN and BURKE,* JJ., concur.McCOMB, J., concurs. 0000010346 00000 n The purpose of violence risk assessment differs somewhat across applications, but at its core, it is the estimation of the likelihood of future violent behavior posed by an individual. Defendant police officers are immune from liability for failing to continue Poddar in their custody. Although the majority fleetingly acknowledges these considerations, it neglects applying them to our case. (Emphasis added.) 129 (1974). Section 856 affords public entities and their employees absolute protection from liability for “any injury resulting from determining in accordance with any applicable enactment ․ whether to confine a person for mental illness.” 17  The section includes an exception to the general rule of immunity, however,, “for injury proximately caused by ․ negligent or wrongful act[s] or omission[s] in carrying out or failing to carry out ․ a determination to confine or not to confine a person for mental illness․”, Turning first to Dr. Powelson's status with respect to section 856, we observe that the actions attributed to him by plaintiffs' complaints fall squarely within the protections furnished by that provision. 'S failure to confine Poddar using Google Chrome, Firefox, or Edge. This ruling come? a, 580, 432 P.2d 193, 196. ) and,., and Garofalo, supra, 69 Cal.Rptr patient ( 1952 ) 28 Ind.L.J of Susan Anthony! 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