Meyer

Respondent John Meyer (plaintiff) commenced this action against appellant City of Oakland (City) and others, seeking damages for injuries he received while he was confined in the Oakland City jail. A jury returned a verdict against the City and awarded plaintiff damages in the amount of $35,000. The City appeals from the judgment entered on the verdict.

The Action

Plaintiffs complaint named the City and Sergeants Lacer and Nisihara, of the Oakland Police Department, as defendants in the action. Plaintiff alleged in the complaint that he was “taken into custody” by the police department on November 8, 1975; that he was “taken to the city jail” and placed in a “dormitory cell,” where he was severely beaten by two named men; and that the beating and his consequent injuries were the proximate results of the defendants’ negligent “failure to supervise the activities in the jail dormitory cell.”

The City and the defendant officers filed answers in which they pleaded material denials and various affirmative defenses. They alleged in one affirmative defense that plaintiff had been a “prisoner” in the jail when he was injured, and that “[pjursuant to Section 844.6 of the…