The private for-profit contractor reversed course after initially asking a judge to set aside a previous default ruling against the company

Rapid Response Bio Clean, the city of Portland’s primary sweep contractor, dropped its request for a judge to set aside a default ruling in a wrongful death lawsuit days after Street Roots reported on the case last month, court records show.

The parties in the case — the family of Debby Beaver, a deceased homeless Portlander, and Rapid Response — reached an out-of-court settlement, according to a May 31 Multnomah County Circuit Court record. Street Roots published its story on the case May 22, detailing the defendant, Rapid Response and its attorney, attempting to have the initial ruling set aside on the grounds that they forgot about the case. The defendants initially said they were never notified about the case, but emails, process server records and media reports show they were made aware of the case.

Rapid Response agreed to pay the Beaver estate $45,000, the original amount declared due to the family in 2022 after Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Judith Matarazzo entered a default ruling against Rapid Response. This payment will not include the 9% annual interest included in the original ruling.

The plaintiffs argued Beaver, 57, died from complications as a result of Rapid Response workers seizing and failing to return her medication in a 2019 sweep just over a week before her death. The plaintiffs also alleged Rapid Response workers found Beaver unresponsive on the day of her death and failed to offer or render any aid.

Portland attorney Michael Fuller, on behalf of Beaver’s husband and son, sued the private for-profit contractor in August 2021. Fuller entered a motion for default judgment against Rapid Response on Dec. 1, 2021, after the company failed to respond. Matarazzo approved the judgment in favor of the Beaver estate Jan. 26, 2022. Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Angela Franco Lucero subsequently ordered Rapid Response to pay the Beaver estate $45,000 with 9% annual interest in June 2022.

Rapid Response owner Lance Hamel denied every relevant assertion in the complaint, saying Rapid Response workers never swept her or took her medicine and, therefore, never failed to return it, according to court documents.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Two years after default ruling on wrongful death lawsuit, Rapid Response Bio Clean wants a do-over

The city’s July 15-July 21, 2019 “Campsite Report” — the week plaintiffs say Rapid Response seized Beaver’s medication during a sweep — lists “SE 35th and SE Taylor,” the other end of the block where Beaver slept and the closest listed location, as a location to be “cleaned” that week. The city generates its “Campsite Reports,” now known as “Weekly Street Services reports,” from internal Rapid Response records.

The prior week’s report, July 8-July 14, 2019 lists “SE 35th and SE Taylor” under “identified for cleanup and are to be posted in the following weeks.” The July 22-July 28, 2019 report lists “SE 35th and SE Taylor” under “Last week we cleaned the following posted locations.”

No parties in the case were willing to comment on the settlement, potentially due to a non-disclosure agreement. The city of Portland did not return requests for comment after previously saying it didn’t believe the veracity of the allegations in a statement for which it refused to provide named attribution.

The complaint

Beaver was sleeping at the intersection of Southeast 35th Avenue and Yamhill Street on July 16, 2019, when Rapid Response seized her belongings during a sweep, including her medication, according to the plaintiff’s complaint. Beaver, unable to retrieve her medication treating seizures, high blood pressure and diabetes, died eight days later in the same spot. Rapid Response workers found her unresponsive around the time of her death and did not offer any aid to revive Beaver, according to the complaint.

“Ms. Beaver lost her life in substantial part due to the wrongful acts and omissions of Rapid Response,” the complaint alleged. “Rapid Response wrongfully took Ms. Beaver’s medication in a sweep. Rapid Response wrongfully failed to return Ms. Beaver’s medication by the time of her death on July 24, 2019 at the corner of SE 35th and Yamhill.”

Street Roots published a commentary on the circumstances surrounding Beaver’s death in 2020.

Stories changing

Rapid Response owner Lance Hamel told the court he first heard about the suit April 2 when a city employee notified him “a Street Roots reporter had reached out … for comment on a wrongful death lawsuit that Rapid Response had supposedly lost” in a statement dated April 8. He told the court he searched his emails and found no mention of the case, adding he didn’t believe he or anyone at Rapid Response ever received the complaint or summons.

Hamel’s amended statement is dated April 19, the day after a deposition in which the plaintiff’s attorney appearing “confident (Hamel) had been notified of this lawsuit when it was filed in 2021,” caused him to search his emails again.

“I located an email from August 2021 from my attorney to my insurance company attaching a copy of the lawsuit and a response from my insurer that I was cc’d on,” Hamel said in the amended statement. “I did not remember receiving this email. I do not know why I did not find this email in my prior email search.”

Rapid Response’s attorney, Amber Beyer of Cosgrave Vergeer Kester LLP in Portland, also told the court she’d never received the complaint and was unaware of the default judgment in a statement dated April 8. Beyer’s amended statement, dated April 19, like Hamel’s, confirms she “became aware” of the lawsuit in August 2021, and notified Rapid Response’s insurer and cc’d Hamel at the time.

“After an initial response from the insurer, I heard nothing further about the matter,” Beyer said in the amended statement. “At the time I signed and served my original declaration in this case, I had no recollection of having ever been aware of this matter.”

Fuller highlighted the changes in Hamel and Beyer’s stories in a filing supporting an order to shorten Rapid Response’s deadline to produce documents, saying the developments should invalidate Rapid Response’s argument for setting aside the default ruling.

“At the same time Rapid Response was claiming that it had no notice in 2021 of this lawsuit having been filed, its attorneys were actively opposing the estate’s requests to produce documents, and Rapid Response would not disclose the identity of its insurance carrier as required by (discovery law),” Fuller said in the filing. “Then, on April 19, Rapid Response disclosed that it did in fact have documents proving that Rapid Response, and its attorneys, and its insurance carrier, all had actual knowledge of this lawsuit back when it was filed in 2021, despite Rapid Response’s sworn declarations and sworn deposition testimony to the contrary.

“The fact that Rapid Response, its attorneys, and even its insurance carrier, all had actual knowledge of this lawsuit back in 2021 is fatal to Rapid Response’s argument of excusable neglect.”

Rapid Response now finds itself on the losing side of three lawsuits in two years. Each lawsuit alleges Rapid Response exhibited illegal conduct against homeless Portlanders, particularly that Rapid Response improperly disposed of belongings it seized during homeless encampment sweeps rather than storing them for 30 days as mandated by its contract with the city and city code. The city also settled a 2021 class action lawsuit stemming from allegations against Rapid Response.

Rather than a standard budgeted amount for Rapid Response, the city’s contract with the company — which also stipulates policies and requirements regarding employees — includes a “not to exceed” amount of $38.6 million over the course of 7 years. The city paid Rapid Response over $9.6 million for its services in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to the city.

Rapid Response faces increasing concerns, dozens of complaints and multiple lawsuits in recent years regarding its treatment of homeless Portlanders and their belongings during city-ordered sweeps, as Street Roots reported on May 15. The Beaver case, one of at least three lawsuits Rapid Response lost since 2022, represents the most substantial ruling against the company.

Fuller also represented homeless plaintiffs in the other two lawsuits, Lynette Snook and Joe Angel, a homeless couple who alleged Rapid Response unlawfully disposed of their belongings during a sweep of their encampment. A court arbitrator found in favor of the couple last year, ordering the company to pay damages for lost items and cover Fuller’s fees.

Fuller also joined Oregon Justice Resource Center attorneys in filing a 2021 class action lawsuit against the city regarding Rapid Response after he attached GPS tracking devices to clearly usable items before the high-profile 2021 Laurelhurst Park sweep. Fuller said GPS data showed Rapid Response workers took many of those items directly to the dump. The city later settled the suit out of court.

Accountability is rare for Rapid Response, according to critics who argue the company leverages its substantial legal budget and the city’s laissez-faire attitude toward compliance to avoid trouble.

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