Sanford v. Commonwealth of Virginia

John Sanford, a disabled hospital patient, became delirious after post-surgical medication and died after being restrained facedown and handcuffed on the floor for roughly 30 minutes by hospital security, police officers, and a sedative injection from a nurse. Sanford's estate (plaintiffs) sued numerous hospital employees and police officers (defendants); one attorney represented all the hospital-employee defendants as a group and another represented all the police-officer defendants as a group. As testimony developed, conflicting accounts and differing theories of individual culpability emerged within each group, prompting the estate to move to disqualify both defense attorneys.