Camp v. Gregory

67 F.3d 1286 (7th Cir. 1995)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

DCFS became Anthony's guardian on June 25, 1991. Prior to that time, Camp (P) had assumed guardianship of Anthony from his mother whose medical condition rendered her unable to care for him. P sought appointment of another guardian after she determined that she could not provide the highly structured and closely supervised environment necessary to assure Anthony's safety and wellbeing. The state granted her request and appointed DCFS as Anthony's guardian. Gregory (D) was subsequently assigned to be Anthony's caseworker. Despite knowing that P could not provide the necessary environment for Anthony, D returned the boy to P's care this despite D knowing that Anthony faced a greater than normal risk of physical harm while living in P's home. D then failed to follow up or to take any further actions and then represented under oath on September 20, 1991, that Anthony had been returned to P at the request of the P family and was attending school and was doing fine. These were false representations, and D knew they were. Ten days later, D got a letter from P wondering why her phone calls were not being returned and why Anthony had not yet been placed in a proper environment and that he was not attending school. Anthony remained in P's care until December 30, 1991, when he died. P claimed it was D's failure to take action. P sued D claiming that Anthony was denied substantive due process.