Mary Cotton v. Anthony Martinez

MEMORANDUM

Following a jury verdict rejecting all but one of the civil rights claims brought by Russell Cotton’s wife and daughters (“the Cottons”) and the court’s declaration of a mistrial on the last claim, the Cottons appeal several of the district court’s rulings. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm the district court.

I.

The district court did not err by limiting the Cottons’ claims against individual Psychiatric Health Facility (“PHF”) defendants to solely Dr. Lunianski. When this appeal was last before us, summary judgment had been granted to all the PHF employees named in the Cottons’ complaint, and discovery had been cut-off with the exception of a small number of specifically-enumerated depositions that the Cottons delayed taking. The Cottons’ previous appeal challenged only the district court’s grant of summary judgment as to Dr. Lunianski and the PHF on their deliberate indifference claims. Therefore we had no other individuals before us and did not require the district court to add additional PHF defendants. The district court was “free [to make its own decision] as to anything not foreclosed by the mandate,” Cassett v. Stewart, 406…