On Friday, Ryan Dreveskracht and Corinne Sebren obtained a $25 million verdict from a federal court jury in Seattle for Javier Tapia, who lost his lower leg while incarcerated in the Pierce County Jail in 2018.
The jury returned the $25 million verdict against NaphCare, a health care company based in Alabama that contracts with local governments in 49 states to provide medical care to incarcerated people, including those jailed by Pierce County. The verdict included $5 million to compensate Javier for the physical and emotional harm that NaphCare caused him as well as $20 million in punitive damages.
As OPB reported regarding the verdict:
Court records show that the jury agreed with Tapia’s three principle arguments: that NaphCare relied on nurses to work beyond their skillset to treat inmates, relied on corrections deputies to monitor inmates’ health, and didn’t communicate with staff about Tapia as his condition worsened.
Those patterns amounted to violating Tapia’s constitutional right to adequate health care, said attorney Corinne Sebren.
“Every inmate in that jail is NaphCare’s patient, and they were only responding when they were being dragged to respond,” Sebren said.
Prior to the trial, Pierce County settled Javier’s claims against the county for $1 million. Ryan and Corinne were supported at trial by Ed Budge of Budge & Heipt. NaphCare was defended by Perkins Coie.
