The suit, filed in Washoe District Court on Friday by Robert and Patricia Hensley, claims social workers were responsible for the June 1994 death of Mailin Thao Stafford.
The lawsuit contends the agency returned the little girl to her mother and stepfather, Tara and Carlos Gutierrez, after a doctor confirmed in August 1993 that the child was an abuse victim.
The suit also asserts that social workers failed to remove Mailin from her parents' custody after more abuse allegations surfaced.
"This is difficult for us," Robert Hensley said. "We could just as easily let it slide, but the thought of this occurring again, it's just beyond us. We want to prevent this from happening again."
The couple is legal guardians of Tatiana Gutierrez-Hensley, 3, who is Mailin's half-sister and heir to her estate.
Two days after the parents reported Mailin missing to police, they led authorities to a ravine in Southern California, where the little girl's bruised and battered body was found June 18, 1994.
Tara Gutierrez pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Carlos Gutierrez entered an Alford plea, in which he maintained his innocence but acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. He is now on Nevada's death row.
The Hensleys' attorney, Carter King, said when Mailin was taken to police in August 1993 with bruises on her and was asked who inflicted her wounds, she identified Carlos Gutierrez.
King said authorities later questioned the girl in her stepfather's presence and she recanted her accusations.
Because both her parents and grandparents, Robin and Richard Butters, were suspects in the case, Mailin was placed in foster care pending an investigation by social services.
That investigation concluded that the child's bruises were the result of falling off a swing at a playground. Mailin was subsequently returned to her mother and stepfather.
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