The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks $500,000 in reimbursement of public funds claimed to have been used to care for the out-of-state patients as well an injunction barring Nevada from dumping more patients in California in the future.
"Homeless, psychiatric patients are especially vulnerable to the kind of practices Nevada engaged in, and the lawsuit I've filed today is about more than just compensation. It's about accountability," San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement about the lawsuit, filed as a class action but not yet certified as such by the court.
The state-run Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas came under fire in April, after the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported that hospital staff had given as many as 1,500 patients one-way bus tickets to California and 46 other states between 2008 and 2013.
Nevada health officials later acknowledged the hospital had shipped 10 newly discharged patients out of state without documenting adequate aftercare plans for food, housing, medication and treatment. They said two employees were fired and three others faced disciplinary action.
