City and County of San Francisco v Sheehan 575 U.S. (2015) 13-1412
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City and County of San Francisco v Sheehan 575 U.S. (2015) 13-1412
- Summary of the importance, context, purpose and relevance of law in a business environment
This Supreme Court suit was brought by a plaintiff to seek damages for being shot by police officers. Every civil law suit always aims at getting financial gains to compensate for alleged injury.
- Parties before the court: The plaintiff is Teresa Sheehan while the defendants are the City and County of San Francisco.
- Facts: The plaintiff was suffering from schizophrenia and residing in a group home in San Francisco. Following Sheehan’s threat to her social worker, the worker became concerned that the plaintiff was becoming a danger to herself and those around her and, therefore, summoned police officers to take the plaintiff to a mental health facility. Upon the arrival of the police, they moved into the plaintiff’s room without a warrant for purposes of taking her into custody. The plaintiff picked a knife and threatened to stab the officers. The police withdrew outside Sheehan’s room, took out their guns and forcibly entered into her room. She made another threat to the officers with a knife and the officers shot her several times. The plaintiff sued the city and the police officers for violating her rights under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) as well as the 4th Amendment protection from warrantless seizures and searches.
- Issues: The first issue before the court was whether the officers were in violation of the 4th Amendment protections due to the fact that they forced their entry into the plaintiff’s room. The second issue was whether the ADA requires police officers to make a provision for accommodation of violent, armed, and mentally ill suspects in their attempts to apprehend a suspect.
- Ruling: The Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement officers were entitled to immunity from the allegations in the suit due to the fact that they had not in any way violated any established rights under the 4th Majority opinion was delivered by Justice Alito, and was joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Thomas, and Chief Justice Roberts. The judges believed that the officers had acted reasonably in the circumstance and thus could not be held liable for forcibly entering Sheehan’s premises.Justices Scalia and Kagan were torn between concurring and dissenting opinion, while Justice Breyer did not take part in the ruling. Justice Scalia dismissed both issues on the ground that they were improvidently granted.
- Key judicial concepts that influenced the decisions related to business
- Rationale:The key concept that influenced the decision of the court was the principle of duty of care(Krauss, 2012). Sheehan had filed a suit to claim compensation for the breach of duty of care by police due to the fact that they had unreasonably forced themselves into her room and shot her, but the court held that there were reasonable grounds for the police to claim immunity.
- Opinion: I agree with the decision of the court because there was no duty owed by the police to Sheehan in line with the ADA and the 4th Amendment guarantees. The test required for the defendant to be held liable for the tort of negligence has not been met in this scenario and the plaintiff is not entitled to compensation. Otherwise, if it had been that Sheehan did not pose any danger to anybody and the police had shot her, they would have been held liable for breach of duty of care. This principle of duty of care is also applicable in business dealings.
References
City and County of San Francisco v Sheehan 575 U.S. (2015) 13-1412. Retrieved from: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/summary/opinion/us-supreme-court/2015/05/18/273537.html
Krauss, M. I. (2012). Tort Law, Moral Accountability, and Efficiency: Reflections on the Current Crisis. Journal of markets & morality, 2(1).
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