Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

The Supreme Court Monday ruled that some government doctors cannot be held personally responsible for mistreatment of patients. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for a unanimous Court, said that employees of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) cannot be sued individually for actions taken while on the job.

The lawsuit was brought by the family of Francisco Castaneda, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March 2006. Over the next 11 months, several doctors and nurses suggested that lesions might be cancerous, but PHS officials denied Castaneda a biopsy, saying the procedure was "elective."

After the lesions got progressively worse, the government released Castaneda in February 2007. He immediately went to a hospital emergency room and was soon diagnosed with penile cancer. Castaneda died one year later.

Three months before his death, Castaneda filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government and several doctors of the Public Health Service, claiming violations of his Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment right. The suit was continued after his death by his sister and his daughter.

In the 15-page ruling, the Court wrote that the law establishing the Public Health Service limited the options of anyone suing over actions by PHS. Under the law, the decision says, injured parties can only sue the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, meaning the employees cannot be held individually responsible in court.

Under California law, damages for medical negligence are limited to $250,000, but the family may be able to recover more if they can convince a court that the doctors' behavior rose to the level of "deliberate indifference."