## Facts

- Matthew Smith, age 47, was arrested and booked into the Pierce County Jail on August 27, 2015.
- Jail medical staff knew at booking that Matthew Smith had Crohn’s disease, a potentially dangerous condition.
- While in custody, Smith began experiencing Crohn’s symptoms that allegedly worsened over time, and he made multiple requests for medical treatment.
- After about four weeks of worsening symptoms, Smith was transported to a hospital for emergency care and was discharged back to the jail with instructions that he needed follow-up specialty care and should return to the emergency department if his symptoms worsened.
- After returning to jail, Smith’s symptoms allegedly continued to worsen, including dehydration, dizziness, aches, cramps, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting.
- Smith ultimately died from complications associated with Crohn’s disease while in custody and while awaiting medical treatment.
- The Estate of Matthew S. Smith and Smith’s parents, Ben and Nona Smith, sued Pierce County and related jail defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
- The parents alleged a substantive due process violation based on loss of familial association with their son.
- Pierce County moved to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), arguing that Supreme Court authority recognizes a parental liberty interest in companionship only as to minor children, not adult children, and therefore the Ninth Circuit’s contrary approach should not be followed.

## Issues

1. Whether, under controlling Ninth Circuit precedent, parents may pursue a § 1983 substantive due process claim for deprivation of familial association arising from the death of their adult child.
2. Whether the Estate’s § 1983 claims survive Matthew Smith’s death under applicable survival law, permitting the Estate to pursue his claims.

## Decision

- The court denied Pierce County’s Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the parents’ familial-association claim, holding that Ninth Circuit precedent recognizing such a claim for adult children is binding on the district court.
- The court also concluded that Matthew Smith’s § 1983 claims did not abate upon his death and could be pursued by his Estate under Washington’s survival statute as borrowed for § 1983 actions.

## Legal Principles

- On a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court accepts well-pleaded factual allegations as true and asks whether the complaint states a plausible claim for relief.
- District courts must follow controlling circuit precedent unless it is overruled by the circuit sitting en banc or by the Supreme Court; a district court may not disregard circuit authority based on its own view that Supreme Court decisions cast doubt on it.
- In the Ninth Circuit, parents have a constitutionally protected liberty interest in the companionship and society of their children, and that doctrine extends to adult children for purposes of a substantive due process familial-association claim under § 1983.
- In § 1983 litigation, federal courts generally borrow state survival rules to determine whether claims survive a plaintiff’s death; under Washington’s general survival statute, causes of action survive to the decedent’s personal representative.

## Conclusion

Smith v. Pierce County is a pleadings-stage decision denying Pierce County’s motion to dismiss where the court held that Ninth Circuit law allows parents to seek § 1983 relief for loss of familial association even when the deceased child was an adult, and it further held that Washington survival law permits the decedent’s Estate to continue his § 1983 claims after his death in county custody.


Smith v. Pierce County, 218 F. Supp. 3d 1220 (2016)