Supreme Court Rules Unanimously in Favor of Washington Cities Against Claims for Inmate Medical Costs.

In a decision with direct financial impacts to every city and county in the state, the Washington Supreme Court on direct review affirmed the trial court’s order on summary judgment in favor of the City of Olympia and all other Thurston County cities dismissing Thurston County’s claims for medical costs incurred by felony inmates at the County Jail who had been arrested by City police officers.  In suing the cities to recover these significant medical costs, Thurston County relied on an Attorney General Opinion (“AGO”) that specifically assigned those medical costs to cities.  Kenyon Disend was privileged to represent all of the cities in Thurston County in convincing both the trial court and the Supreme Court that the law instead properly assigns those costs to the counties operating the jails in which inmates are housed.