Facts

Plaintiff and his twin sister were born in 1993. They were almost immediately placed in the City and County of San Francisco's foster care system in the home of their maternal aunt. The twins were in the care of their maternal aunt from 1993 until Sept. 2, 2008, the date that the maternal aunt culminated her long-standing abuse of the twins with the murder of plaintiff's 15-year-old sister.

The abuse included beatings with extension cords, belts, wood sticks, and burns from a steam iron. The twins spent most of their time in the house locked inside a small bedroom closet. They were deprived of food, and at the time of the murder, both siblings suffered from malnutrition, each weighing less than 80 pounds at 15 years of age. Investigating police officers characterized the discovery of the twins as "the most extreme case of long-term abuse they had ever seen."

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiff contended that the defendants' failure to follow mandatory duties resulted in atrocious child abuse and torture of the twins and ultimately led to the death of plaintiff's sister. The abuse was evident by the twin's physical appearance for over two years before the aunt killed plaintiff's sister. Plaintiff claimed that reasonable social workers, school personnel and court appointed representatives in the position of defendants would have been suspicious of the abuse and reported it. This would have spared the twins from horrendous torture that ultimately took the life of plaintiff's sister and left plaintiff physically and emotionally scarred.

As to City and County of San Francisco and Ann Marie Smith, plaintiff contended that San Francisco Human Service Agency and the social workers assigned to the children's case breached certain mandatory duties, which required that the social workers: obtain evidence that the children were getting proper medical treatment and monitor the physical and emotional condition of children placed in foster care; monitor their safety and to assess their well being at regular intervals to ensure that they had no severe physical or emotional problems caused or aggravated by the placement; see that the placement was stable; and to report suspected incidents of physical abuse to law enforcement. None of the above was done.

The foster parent repeatedly lost or avoided contact with social workers. The foster parent had a live-in boyfriend with a criminal drug history. There were no records of required doctor visits for these foster children. Despite the need to increase the oversight of these foster children, defendants City and Smith reduced their visits from monthly intervals to once every six months for the last several years before plaintiff's sister's murder.

Corroborating documentation was not sought to verify that these foster children were regularly attending school and receiving medical care. As the abuse increased to these two foster children, defendant city through their agency and Smith repeatedly encouraged the foster mother to obtain legal guardianship which was approved, based on false information provided to the court by Smith, even though neither the foster mother nor the twins showed up for the guardianship court hearing on Aug. 27, 2008.

Plaintiff contended that rather than take steps to properly monitor the children, defendants City and Smith took steps to distance themselves further from protecting these children by encouraging the foster mother to adopt the children so that there would be no monitoring at all. The record also revealed a very suspicious last recorded home visit by Smith for the twins in March 2008. It stated that the twins were in the 9th grade and had improved their grades, and appeared to be very content. Both children were friendly, talkative, and appeared to be healthy. Plaintiff claimed that such observation was impossible, in light of the twin's emaciated state and head to toe scars. Plaintiff contended that on one occasion, plaintiff's twin told Smith that as punishment they would get whipped. According to plaintiff, the social worker's response was "if you were my kids, I would whip you too." Smith's record stated that plaintiff's sister attended high school with her brother and would also be in the 10th grade in the fall. In fact, plaintiff's sister was dropped from the roll in October 2007 and spent the last year of her life locked up, tortured, beaten, and eventually murdered.

In a report filed by the San Francisco Human Services Agency/Family & Children's Services Division by Ann Marie Smith dated Aug. 27, 2008, it stated in part that plaintiff's sister is quiet, smiles and is not talkative. She attends high school. She had a decent term last term. Smith recommended that the foster mother/aunt be granted guardianship of the twins since she has provided a secure and safe environment for the teens to thrive. Based on her recommendation, the aunt was ordered to be the guardian and the dependency case was dismissed. Seven days later, the aunt murdered plaintiff's sister.

As to Antioch Unified School District, plaintiff contended that their employees and staff had a mandatory duty to report physical abuse suffered by a students of which they were aware or reasonably should have been aware; that plaintiff's twin sister, before she was pulled out of school, came to school with numerous scars, scratches, and wounds; that one of her classmates reported her suspicion of abuse to someone in the counseling office at school. Despite this and that fact that plaintiff's sister was pulled out of school and did not attend school for the last year of her life, there were no reports of suspicion of child abuse made by school personnel. This despite the fact that plaintiff's sister had a sporadic attendance record with a history of tardiness, absence, and behavior problems at school and would come to school routinely with different physical injuries. She would dress inappropriately by wearing turtlenecks in warm weather in an apparent attempt to cover up some of her wounds. Despite the foregoing, none of the mandatory reporters at the school ever reported signs of abuse. And no one questioned why she was withdrawn from school. A truancy notice was sent by the school district to the aunt due to the absence of plaintiff's sister from school. This notice included a warning of further action by the district to address this truancy. Despite the child never returning to school, the district made no inquiry and took no further action.

Compounding the inattention given to plaintiff's sister, plaintiff had obvious and numerous scars on his legs, arms and torso that would necessarily have been seen by school staff as he changed for P.E. class and when wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts.

As to Tali Soltz, the court appointed advocate for the plaintiff and his sister, plaintiff contended that her responsibilities included insuring that the legal rights and protections were adhered to as the appointed representative of these foster children. Part of her responsibility was to look at the foster children's interests while they were within the foster care system. It was contended that it was impossible that Soltz would not have observed the emaciated condition and the numerous wounds of plaintiff and his sister prior to the time of plaintiff's sister's death.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
Soltz contended that plaintiff and plaintiff's sister exhibited no signs of physical abuse during Soltz's visits. She further contended that plaintiff and plaintiff's sister gave no indication to Soltz that they were being abused. In addition to the foregoing factual defenses, she raised the defense of quasi judicial immunity.

Result

The case settled for $4,850,000 ($4 million from City and County of San Francisco and Ann Marie Smith; $750,000 from Antioch Unified School District; $100,000 policy limits from Tali Soltz). A structured settlement was procured provided expected pay outs to plaintiff over his lifetime of over $12 million.

Other Information

MEDIATOR: William J. Cahill, retired. FILING DATE: Aug. 28, 2009.