Johnson v. Alameda County Medical Center

A woman involuntarily committed to a county mental institution was assaulted by a fellow patient and sued the institution and several of its employees for negligence. Defendants claimed governmental immunity under a statute providing that a public entity is not liable for injuries caused by, or suffered by, a patient of a mental institution. (Gov. Code, § 854.8, subd. (a).) The trial court found that plaintiff’s injury claim was barred by statutory immunity and granted defendants summary judgment. Plaintiff claims that triable issues of fact exist precluding summary judgment or, at the least, plaintiff should have been allowed to conduct additional discovery to gather facts establishing exceptions to governmental immunity. We reject the claims and affirm the judgment.

I. FACTS

Alameda County Medical Center (Medical Center) is a public entity. The Medical Center operates John George Psychiatric Pavilion (JGPP), a county psychiatric hospital. In June 2005, plaintiff Lisa Johnson and Cedrick Frowner were separately admitted as JGPP patients on involuntary holds for emergency psychiatric evaluation and treatment. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5150.) Both plaintiff and Frowner were…