Doe v. Fulton-DeKalb Hosp. Auth., No. 08-14304

Action For Sexual Abuse by Substance Abuse Counselor

In Doe v. Fulton-DeKalb Hosp. Auth., No. 08-14304, an action claiming that, while being treated for opiate addiction in defendant's methadone clinic, plaintiffs were subjected to sexual harassment at the hands of a substance abuse counselor, the court affirmed partial summary judgment for defendant where 1) the complaint's factual allegations established that the worker acted purely for his own personal gratification and outside the scope of his employment in his mistreating of plaintiffs; 2) the complaint did not allege that any of the individual defendants procured the worker with the intent to injure the plaintiffs, such that any individual defendant would become a joint tortfeasor with the worker; and 3) the district court did not err in rejecting plaintiffs' claim that the worker's hiring constituted negligence per se.

As the court wrote:  "The Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, is operated by the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, d/b/a Grady Health System ("Grady" or the "Hospital"). As part of its Department of Mental Health Services ("DMHS"), the Hospital maintains a Drug Dependence Unit ("DDU").  The plaintiffs in this case,
identified pseudonymously as Jane Doe Nos. 1, 2, and 3, claim that while being
treated for opiate addiction in the DDU's methadone clinic, they were subjected to
sexual harassment at the hands of a substance abuse counselor, Steve Kimbrell."

Related Resources

• Read the Eleventh Circuit's Decision in Doe v. Fulton-DeKalb Hosp. Auth., No. 08-14304