McEvoy et al v. Hillsborough County et al

Filing 45

ORDER granting in part and denying in part 42 Motion for Reconsideration re: 41 Order on Motion to Compel granted in part and denied in part, upon reconsideration. So Ordered by Magistrate Judge Landya B. McCafferty. (gla)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Richard McEvoy, et al.
v.

Civil No. 09-cv-431-SM

Hillsborough County, et al.

O R D E R
Before the court is defendants' motion to reconsider (doc.
no. 42) the court's order dated May 5, 2011 (doc. no. 41).

The

motion is granted in part and denied in part.
The motion is granted to the following extent:
1.

Defendant is granted an extension of time to comply

with the order until July 1, 2011.
2.

With respect to producing records of inmates with

symptoms of drug detoxification and withdrawal (including
dehydration), the court approves a procedure whereby the jail
will review all nonparty inmate medical records (for the oneyear preceding Kevin's death) for symptoms of drug
detoxification and withdrawal (including dehydration), that
appear in the medical records.

If such symptoms do not appear

in a particular inmate's medical records within seven days from
the date of the inmate's initial incarceration date, the jail

need not conduct any further review of that inmate's medical
records and need not produce that inmate's records.

This

procedure will reduce the page-by-page, manual review of medical
records that the jail must undertake to comply with the court's
order.

Plaintiffs concede that symptoms of opiate withdrawal

peak at seventy-two hours and can last five to seven days.
Thus, this limitation is reasonable and balances the interests
at stake.

The court does not approve the procedure whereby the

jail would filter out of its review the medical records of
inmates who did not identify their opiate addiction in their
"pre-med" interview.

The court can imagine a scenario in which

a drug-addicted inmate would not in his initial intake interview
identify himself to jail medical staff as a drug user or a drug
addicted person.

Nothing in the record suggests that such an

individual would experience withdrawal differently than an
inmate who identified himself as an addict.
3.

With respect to medical records of inmates who suffered

symptoms of dehydration (independent of opiate withdrawal), the
court approves defendants' proposed procedure of producing only
those records where the dehydration symptoms were severe enough
to result in a hospital transfer.

Without this limitation, the

search for records revealing symptoms of dehydration

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(independent of opiate withdrawal) would be unlikely to lead to
relevant evidence and would, therefore, on balance, impose an
undue burden on defendants.
The motion is denied in every other respect.
SO ORDERED.

__________________________
Landya McCafferty
United States Magistrate Judge
Date:
cc:

May 31, 2011

John A. Curran, Esq.
Jonathan A. Lax, Esq.
Joseph F. McDowell, III, Esq.
Jeffrey B. Osburn, Esq.

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