LORRAINE GORMLEY VS. LATANY WOOD-EL, ET AL. A-3894-09T3
Defendants appeal the interlocutory order denying their summary judgment motion seeking, on the basis of qualified immunity, dismissal of plaintiff's civil rights complaint. Plaintiff, an attorney, claimed defendants violated her substantive due process right under the Fourteenth Amendmentwhen they created and imposed serious risks of harm to her as she met with her client, a mental patient confined at Ancora. Plaintiff's client physically attacked her during the course of that meeting. The motion judge ruled whether defendants are entitled to qualified immunity is a question of fact for the trier of fact. We reversed, holding that the determination of whether defendants are entitled to qualified immunity is a question of law for the court.
We additionally held that the facts, as alleged, established a prima facie case of a state-created danger theory of liability under the Fourteenth Amendment, but nonetheless
concluded the right plaintiff
10-17-11
defendants were entitled to qualified immunity because asserted was not clearly established at the time was attacked. 10-18-11
