Civil Suit in ‘Angel of Death’ Case Is Dismissed

A civil wrongful death lawsuit against “Angel of Death” suspect Efren Saldivar and his former employer, Glendale Adventist Medical Center, was dismissed Thursday because the plaintiffs found insufficient evidence to bring the case to trial, attorneys in the case said.

Saldivar, 31, is in custody awaiting arraignment on murder charges in the deaths of six Glendale Adventist patients between December 1996 and August 1997.

The suit, dismissed Thursday by Superior Court Judge Carl W. West, concerned a 91-year-old man, John N. Schwartz, who was not among the six patients Saldivar is charged with killing. Nor was Schwartz’s body among the 20 chosen by Glendale police for exhumation.

Schwartz’s family had claimed that Saldivar caused Schwartz’s death while he was a patient at Glendale Adventist in 1993.

There are at least four wrongful death suits pending against Saldivar, said Terry M. Goldberg, who is representing Saldivar in the civil cases.