Montgomery Partner Tabor Novak obtained the dismissal of a claim, in federal court, by a jail inmate who alleged that her civil rights were violated when she received substandard care from a physician in the emergency room and during a subsequent admission in a Montgomery hospital.
The Court found that a claim that a private physician who was not a “state actor” when providing medical care which was allegedly substandard to an inmate, does not constitute a violation of an inmate’s civil rights so as to invoke jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C Sec.1983. Nor could the Court exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims of medical negligence without primary jurisdiction that would have arisen under a viable claim of violation of constitutional rights. Thus, the case was dismissed.