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"A federal judge in Philadelphia last week denied a defense motion to dismiss a lawsuit<br /><br />that had been filed by an emergency medical worker against the ambulance squad for which she worked over claims that the organization was partially responsible for a sexual assault the plaintiff endured at the hands of a fellow rescue worker.<br /><br />In a memorandum opinion filed Oct. 3 at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg denied Bensalem Rescue Squad&rsquo;s motion to dismiss the federal action that had been filed by Margo Carlin earlier this year.<br /><br />Carlin had initially filed her claim in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas; the defendant subsequently removed the case to the federal court in Philadelphia.<br /><br />Carlin sued the rescue squad under the state-created danger doctrine, alleging that the organization&rsquo;s conduct violated her due process rights.<br /><br />Specifically, Carlin claimed that the squad placed her in danger by providing her coworker, Michael Marren, with access to the rescue squad&rsquo;s building, failing to provide Marren and other ambulance workers with sexual harassment training, and failing to impose additional security measures at the building.<br /><br />Marren sexually assaulted Carlin after a night out drinking on March 9, 2010, according to the judicial memorandum.<br /><br />The two, along with other rescue squad members, had gone out for a night of socializing at a local bar on March 8 of that year; Carlin and Marren ended up going to a local inn after the bar, and then went on to return to the rescue squad building in Bensalem, where Marren subsequently sexually assaulted Carlin in a ladies room, the memorandum states.<br /><br />On Dec. 17, 2010, a jury convicted Marren on three counts of aggravated indecent assault and three counts of indecent assault.<br /><br />In its motion to dismiss the claims against it, the rescue squad argued that Carlin&rsquo;s complaint does not satisfy the elements required for a state-created danger claim.<br /><br />Citing case law, Goldberg wrote that a state&rsquo;s failure to protect an individual against private violence does not generally constitute a violation of the Due Process Clause.<br /><br />However, the judge wrote, there is an exception to the rule under the state-created danger doctrine, whereby a state actor may be responsible for the safety of an individual for whom it affirmatively creates or enhances a risk of danger.<br /><br />In this case, Goldberg wrote, the court failed to identify any affirmative use of authority by the rescue squad that created a danger or rendered Carlin more vulnerable to danger.<br /><br />Because of this, the judge wrote, Carlin&rsquo;s state-created danger claim &ldquo;necessarily fails.&rdquo;<br /><br />The judge wrote that in order to plead a claim under the state-created danger doctrine, a plaintiff must allege a &ldquo;misuse of state authority, rather than a failure to use it, that can violate the Due Process Clause.&rdquo;<br /><br />Carlin&rsquo;s allegations that the rescue squad failed to provide its members with sexual harassment training and engaged in other failures, amount to &ldquo;nothing more than a series of actions not taken by Defendant,&rdquo; the memorandum states. &ldquo;As failures to act do not render Defendant liable under the fourth element [needed to support a state-created danger claim], Plaintiff fails this element and cannot proceed on a state-created danger claim.&rdquo;<br /><br />Goldberg, however, wrote that in civil rights cases, a district court must extend a plaintiff an opportunity to amend his or her complaint before a judge can dismiss it, hence Goldberg&rsquo;s decision to deny the rescue squad&rsquo;s motion to dismiss at this juncture.<br /><br />The decision gives Carlin a month in which to amend her complaint.<br /><br />In addition to the rescue squad, Marren, the assailant, is also named as a defendant in the litigation."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://pennrecord.com/stories/510552525-federal-judge-allows-sexual-assault-victim-to-file-amended-complaint-against-rescue-squad>