C.A. 2nd;
B269387

The Second Appellate District affirmed a judgment. The court held that governmental immunity barred a former state prison inmate's Bane Act claim based on the alleged failure to protect him from the known risk of a dangerous disease.

State prison inmate Glenn Towery, who is African American, became infected with valley fever while incarcerated at Kern Valley State Prison from March 2009 until April 2013. He continued to suffer from the disease upon his release. Towery sued the State of California for his injury, alleging the State intentionally chose to take no action to protect African-American inmates against valley fever despite knowing that they were at disproportionate risk of contracting a serious form of the disease and that the overwhelming majority of reported cases of valley fever in California had occurred in Kern County. Towery asserted a claim under the Bane Act, at Civil Code, §52.1, which creates a claim for an individual whose constitutional rights have been violated through “threat, intimidation, or coercion.”