Stephens

MEMORANDUM ***

Plaintiffs-Appellants Sheila Stephens and her two adult sons, Julian Stephens and James Knoll, appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendant-Appellee Kevin Evers. Plaintiffs brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , alleging that, when Evers lost consciousness behind the wheel of a city-owned vehicle and struck and killed Stephens’ husband, he violated the decedent’s Fourteenth Amendment right to substantive due process. Plaintiffs also sued under Oregon state law for wrongful death. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

In order for an individual to be subject to § 1983 liability for a violation of substantive due process, that individual must act in a way that “shocks the conscience.” County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 846 , 118 S.Ct. 1708 , 140 L.Ed.2d 1043 (1998). In some situations, deliberately indifferent or criminally reckless behavior that results in an injury may meet the conscience-shocking standard, while in other situations, substantive due process will be violated only where the governmental actor has intentionally caused harm. Id. at 848-49 , 118 S.Ct. 1708 . We need not decide which…