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| Federal court denies prison-death lawsuit from inmate's father |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/06/2005 |
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A federal appeals court May 27 refused to reinstate a lawsuit that sought damages on behalf of a South Dakota state penitentiary inmate who died after being beaten by his cellmate. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a federal magistrate's decision to dismiss the lawsuit that arose after Gregory Kaubisch was beaten by his cellmate, Jose Sanchez, on April 26, 2000. Kaubisch, who was in a coma after the attack, died Nov. 8, 2002, from the effects of the beating, according to court records. The inmate's father, George Kaubisch, waited too long to substitute himself as the plaintiff in the case after his son died, the appeals panel said. A federal court rule requires that the case be dismissed because of that oversight, the panel said. George Kaubisch had filed the lawsuit as his son's guardian. The lawsuit alleged that prison warden Doug Weber, Sioux Valley Hospital and Dr. Ulises Pesce had violated Gregory Kaubisch's civil rights. Sioux Valley at one time had a contract to provide medical services to inmates, and Pesce provided mental health care to inmates. After Gregory Kaubisch died, his father had 90 days to file a motion to substitute himself as the plaintiff, but his lawyers did not file that motion until well after the deadline had passed. By that time, Kaubisch sought to list himself in the lawsuit as personal representative of his son's estate. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Simko of Sioux Falls dismissed the lawsuit after finding that there was no excusable neglect in the failure to file the motion to substitute plaintiffs. The federal appeals panel agreed that Simko did not abuse his discretion in refusing to extend the deadline for Kaubisch's filing of the substitution motion. |
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