NaphCare can’t duck contract claims over brutal San Diego jail death

The family of a man killed in a San Diego jail claims the jail's healthcare administrator allowed another inmate to attack and kill him in 2024.SAN DIEGO (CN) — The healthcare provider for the San Diego County Jail is still on the hook for breach of contract claims following the brutal murder and torture of an inmate in 2024, a federal judge ruled.U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan, a Bill Clinton appointee, denied NaphCare’s attempt to dismiss the claims after San Diego County filed a third-party complaint against it.The case stems from the murder of 24-year-old Brandon Yates in January 2024 while incarcerated at San Diego Central Jail. Yates, who was homeless at the time, suffered from mental illness and drug addiction when he was beaten and then smothered to death by another inmate, Alvin Ruis, after a discussion about religion turned violent.Whelan concluded Yates’ parents and San Diego County plausibly claimed if NaphCare had followed its procedures, the jail staff would have prevented Ruis from being placed in the same cell as Yates due to his “heightened propensity towards violence.”“NaphCare’s duty to defend is not defeated merely because other defendants’ acts, errors, or omissions allegedly contributed to Yates’ death, or because the alleged conduct of NaphCare’s employees was not the direct cause of death,” Whelan wrote.Yates’ parents filed a lawsuit against the county in 2025, claiming that jail staff negligently put the two men in a cell together and then ignored their son’s cries for help as Ruis attacked him.The county also blames NaphCare employees who were responsible for evaluating Ruis.NaphCare argued that its contract with the county only included deficient medical care, not a failure to protect. But the judge disagreed, pointing out that its contract includes passive negligent acts.The judge also ruled partially in favor of NaphCare’s clinicians, who are also named in the county’s lawsuit — though they are unnamed in the family’s lawsuit.The county’s second claim against the healthcare provider tried to hold several of these clinicians responsible along with the county.“The allegations against Does 37–46 cannot be attributed to the third-party individual defendants without explicitly connecting them to the alleged negligence, and as such the county’s equitable indemnity cause of action cannot be sustained,” Whelan wrote.The jury in the trial for Ruis, who is charged with first-degree murder, is deadlocked at 11-1.Yates’ parents say that the two men both suffered from hyper-religiosity. Their son believed that he was Jesus Christ, but Ruis believed Yates was the devil, they say.Shortly after being housed together, Ruis began his attack, punching and kicking Yates, and then putting him in a chokehold until he passed out, the parents say in the complaint. Ruis then poured liquid soap into his mouth and nose and smothered him with a green jail blanket while he was unconscious. Ruis sexually assaulted Yates with a bar of soap and then tried to pose Yates’ body in the form of the cross.The parents say that Yates’ cause of death was asphyxiation.The civil case against the county is just one of many filed by family members of inmates who have died while in San Diego County Jail in recent years. The San Diego Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board estimated that 179 people have died since December 2011.A spokesperson for either party did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads