District Court Says Inmate's Claim Against Prison Operators May Proceed

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Asserting that their inmate-client, Gregory Edison, was negligently exposed to a terminal and deadly form of Valley Fever, Los Angeles-based attorneys, Jason Feldman and Ian Wallach, prevailed in court on Friday, February 22, 2013, when the court held that the case of Edison v. GEO Group, Inc. et al. (EDCA 1:12-cv-02026) could proceed.

The case before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, brought by an inmate housed at the Taft Correctional Facility in Taft, California, alleges that the subcontractors who operated the prison, The GEO Group, Inc. ("GEO") and Management and Training Corporation ("MTC"), failed to protect Mr. Edison from acquiring the terminal form of coccidiodomycosis (aka "Valley Fever").

GEO and MTC moved to dismiss the case--asserting that the Plaintiff failed to exhaust the administrative remedy filing requirements normally asserted by Governmental entities. Feldman and Wallach countered that such requirements do not apply to tort claims against private entities.

United States Senior District Judge Anthony W. Ishii upheld the findings of Magistrate Judge Jennifer L. Thurston, who had explained that there was no statutory authority supporting Defendants' argument that they were permitted to impose an administrative remedy that must be exhausted before an inmate may file a complaint raising state tort claims.