Case Name: County of Los Angeles v. Mendez 581U.S.___ (2017)
Operational Fact: In October 2010, deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were searching for a potentially armed and dangerous “parolee-at-large” that was seen at a certain residence. While other officers searched, without a warrant in the main house Deputies Conley and Pederson searched the back of the property where unknowingly, Mendez and Garcia were sleeping in a shack on the property. Deputies Conley and Pederson searched the shack without announcing their presence, startled the couple one of whom, Mendez, picks up a BB gun used mainly for killing pests and rodents. The officers see the gun and yell “Gun!” and start firing a total of “15 shots” at the suspected threat. Mendez and Garcia were injured in the incident and were hospitalized. The armed and dangerous “parolee-at-large” that was reported to be at this certain residence was not found on the property. …show more content…
The defendant augured that the plaintiff’s actions of holding the BB gun, that bear a resemblance to a rifle, falls under a superseding cause. The plaintiff claimed that the defendants broke the duty of care under negligence which includes the elements of Duty, Breach, Causation, and Damaged. Then the plaintiff also claimed that under the Ninth Circuit’s provocation rule, the defendants’ actions may seem reasonable, but indeed are unreasonable since they provoked the violent response that caused the superseding cause from the