Alice M. Kyureghian '14 Wins U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Case
On June 26, 17 days after Alice M. Kyureghian '14 argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of the plaintiffs-appellants in Staggs v. Doctors Hospital of Manteca, et al., a Ninth Circuit panel upheld her appeal, ruling in favor of the surviving family members of a California prison inmate who suffered from liver cancer and died from internal bleeding following a biopsy procedure.
Kyureghian wrote the appellate briefs for the case, an action alleging Eighth Amendment and state law claims against prison and other health care providers, last year while enrolled in the UC Davis School of Law Civil Rights Clinic, under the supervision of Professor Carter "Cappy" White. She traveled to San Francisco to argue the appeal before a panel that included Judges Morgan Christen and Paul Watford, and Senior United States District Judge Jed S. Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.), sitting by designation.
The case involved a claim by the Estate of Robert E. Staggs and Melissa Staggs that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to Staggs' medical needs. Staggs had Hepatitis C, cirrhosis of the liver, and complications of undiagnosed liver cancer. Prison doctors arranged a liver biopsy even after two hospitals refused to perform the procedure because of an elevated risk of internal bleeding. In light of these facts, the Ninth Circuit panel ruled the district court had erred in dismissing the plaintiffs' claim for relief.
Professor White praised Kyureghian, an associate with Hurrell Cantrall LLP in Los Angeles, for the countless pro bono hours she donated to the Clinic preparing for the oral argument. "It's a tremendous experience for a young attorney, but Alice went above and beyond the call of duty," said White. "She and her firm are to be congratulated on this commitment to pro bono representation in a serious Constitutional case."
White said that members of the King Hall faculty also assisted by reviewing the briefs and judging practice arguments, including Professors Margaret Johns and Carlton Larson, as well as Holly Cooper, lecturer and staff attorney at the Immigration Law Clinic, and J. Angelo DeSantis, a Richard C. Wydick Legal Writing and Research Fellow. He also thanked Dean Kevin R. Johnson and Professor Leticia Saucedo, Director of Clinical Education, for their continued support of the Prison Law Clinic.
Staggs v. Doctors Hospital of Manteca: oral argument
Staggs v. Doctors Hospital of Manteca: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit memoranda