Case Details and Video Transcript:

 Filed 1/25/2024 

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION 

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT 

DIVISION TWO ALI SHALGHOUN, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. NORTH LOS ANGELES COUNTY REGIONAL CENTER, INC., Defendant and Respondent.

B323186 (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. 19STCV19756)

In this case, a regional center was hired by the State of California to find a residential facility to house and care for a developmentally disabled man, J.C. After the regional center placed J.C. at a facility, the facility informed it that it could no longer care for him. While the regional center was in the middle of relocating J.C., J.C. attacked and injured the facility’s administrator, Ali Shalghoun.

Shalghoun contended that the regional center was negligent for failing to immediately relocate the resident after finding out that the facility could no longer provide the level of care the resident required.

The trial court granted judgment in favor of the regional center. The Court of Appeal agreed with the lower court, and in addition to referring to public policy factors, it reasoned that the regional center’s duty, as mandated by the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, was to service and support the disabled person, not to protect third-party facility employees. The Court also noted that the regional center could not unilaterally transfer the resident without finding another facility to accept him first.

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