On August 22, 2006, a group of 25 inmates and pretrial detainees filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina, claiming to have been infected with Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus ("MRSA") while they were incarcerated at the Greenville County Detention Center ("Jail") in South Carolina. MRSA is a flesh eating bacteria that can cause debilitating open sores, pain, and death. Staph infections, including the MRSA strain, are generally spread through close skin-to-skin contact and in places with crowded living conditions and poor hygiene. Plaintiffs alleged that the poor sanitation of the Jail together with the deliberate indifference of Jail officials to preventing infectious disease led to their exposure, effectively violating their Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, and class certification.

The case was assigned to District Court Judge G. Ross Anderson, Jr. According to the PACER docket, the parties engaged in discovery and Defendants eventually moved for summary judgment. Prior to any ruling on Defendants' motion, however, the parties advised the Court that they had reached a settlement. On March 4, 2008, the Court (Magistrate Judge William M. Catoe) held a fairness hearing and approved the settlement. While the settlement documents were not available through the PACER docket, news accounts reported that Greenville County agreed to pay $80,000 to settle the case.

We have no further information on this case.

Dan Dalton - 03/10/2008


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