State of California v. Superior Court

Law Office of Kim D. Scovis, Kim D. Scovis and Jenny Scovis, Thousand Oaks, for Real Party in Interest.

Plaintiff Bernard Bodde was a prison inmate who sued the State of California and various state employees. [1] His third amended complaint alleged that while in prison he was diagnosed as having tuberculosis, when in fact he was actually suffering from lung cancer. The pleading included allegations against the State for intentional infliction of emotional distress (second count), violation of Government Code section 845.6 (third count), negligence (fourth count) and "negligence per se" (presented as a fifth count, but erroneously denominated in the third amended complaint as plaintiffs second "fourth count"). The State demurred to the second through fifth counts. The trial court overruled the demurrer. The State petitioned this court for writ of mandate. This court issued an order to show cause. The State asks us to direct the superior court to issue an order sustaining the State's demurrer to Bodde's second through fifth causes of action. As we shall explain, the trial court did not err in overruling the demurrer. We publish in order to reaffirm our statement in…