Courts: shaken Tulare foster infant, County/workers are "immune"

Courts: shaken Tulare foster infant, County/workers are "immune"

Opinion from the Fifth District Court of Appeals, filed on Friday, September 17, 2010, in the case of U.B. vs. the County of Tulare, and made available to the public via the website, Leagle, which provides the entire original decision document on its site.

U.B. was severely injured while in his foster home. Through his guardian ad litem Dorothy Garcia, he sued, among others, the County of Tulare and its departments or divisions, the Health & Human Services Agency and Child Protective/Welfare Services (together the County), as well as its employees Adelita Felix, Marie Hernandez, Sharon Howell and Maria Focha (the County employees) (collectively the County defendants). U.B. sought damages for the alleged negligence of the County defendants in failing to consider that he might be the victim of child abuse after his biological mother reported three times that she saw bruises on him. The trial court granted the County and County employees' motion for summary judgment. U.B. appealed from the resulting judgment. We hold, there being no factual dispute, that as a matter of law, the County and its employees are immune from liability for conduct in deciding whether to intervene in and remove a child from a placement. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment...