26 results for 'cat:"Health Care" AND cat:"Wrongful Death"'.
J. Ashmann-Gerst finds that the trial court should have granted a nursing facility's motion to compel arbitration of a wrongful death claim filed by the parents of a dependent adult who died in its care. The arbitration agreement signed by their son plainly bound his heirs to arbitrating a wrongful death claim based on an allegation of professional negligence. Reversed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Ashmann-Gerst, Filed On: May 10, 2024, Case #: B323237, Categories: Arbitration, health Care, wrongful Death
J. Brown, in this interlocutory appeal, finds the circuit court properly denied the nursing center's motion to compel arbitration in this wrongful death suit. The estate alleges that due to insufficient staffing, the decedent was not turned often enough to prevent the stage 2 wound to her left coccyx, a boil to her left buttock and an unstageable wound to her right heel. The patient was also dehydrated and malnourished, which prevented healing. There is insufficient evidence the decedent authorized her daughter to bind her to arbitration, and the daughter did not have actual authority to enter into the agreement on her mother's behalf. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Brown, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: CV-23-182, Categories: Arbitration, health Care, wrongful Death
J. Crabtree rules an estate administrator may pursue wrongful death claims against a nursing home. The estate administrator sufficiently showed in court that nursing home employees failed to prevent her father from walking without assistance, falling, and suffering fatal injuries.
Court: USDC Kansas, Judge: Crabtree, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv2385, NOS: Personal Injury - Medical Malpractice - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: health Care, Negligence, wrongful Death
J. Cornelius grants a medical device manufacturer’s motion to dismiss this wrongful death product liability lawsuit involving a medical defibrillator known as the Evera brought by the patient’s estate. The manufacturer recalled the defective defibrillators due to the battery rapidly and unexpectedly depleting approximately two months before the patient’s death, but the estate alleges the recall should have happened sooner. The estate’s claims are based on post-“premarket approval” behavior, so they are preempted by the Medical Device Amendments of 1976.
Court: USDC Northern District of Alabama , Judge: Cornelius, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv423, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: health Care, Product Liability, wrongful Death
J. Bulla grants the doctor's petition for a writ of mandamus challenging the county court's denial of his motion to dismiss a wrongful death suit. The inmate died after unsuccessful heart surgery, complicated by sickle cell anemia. The family members of the deceased, though having received requested medical records, did not file the complaint until after limitations had expired. No reason was given for the delay and, therefore, the court was required to dismiss the complaint.
Court: Nevada Court of Appeals, Judge: Bulla , Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 86567-COA, Categories: health Care, wrongful Death, Prisoners' Rights
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J. Campbell finds the lower court improperly determined that the decedent’s attorney-in-fact’s action of signing an arbitration agreement upon his admittance to an assisted living center was outside the scope of her power of attorney and was a health care decision. The instant court finds that the arbitration agreement was a stand-alone agreement and the decedent’s admission to the center was not contingent upon the signing of the agreement, therefore it was a legal decision and fell within the parameters of the the attorney-in-fact’s authority. As such, the arbitration agreement is binding in its terms, extending beyond the signing parties to the decedent’s other surviving family, including his son, and requires the wrongful-death claims to be submitted to arbitration. Reversed.
Court: Tennessee Supreme Court, Judge: Campbell, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: M2021-00927-SC-R11-CV, Categories: Arbitration, health Care, wrongful Death
J. Gladwin finds the trial court properly denied the nursing home's motion to compel arbitration. The estate executor attests that admissions paperwork did not contain an arbitration provision, and a separate, voluntary arbitration agreement was sent for her review prior to the deceased party's admission. The executor says that the agreement she reviewed was not the same as the provision incorporated into the admissions agreement, and nothing in the record disputes the executor's sworn statements. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Gladwin , Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: CV-22-510, Categories: Arbitration, health Care, wrongful Death
J. Gladwin finds the circuit court properly denied the nursing home's motion to compel arbitration on a daughter's negligence claims for injuries and the wrongful death of her mother. The mother allegedly sustained injuries from falls, was subject to inaccurate assessments and incurred a UTI. The arbitration agreement lacks mutuality of obligation and, therefore, is not a valid agreement. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Gladwin , Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: CV-22-517, Categories: Arbitration, health Care, wrongful Death
Per curiam, the circuit finds the district court improperly found for certain county employees and medical contractors in a wrongful death action filed by the family of the pretrial detainee who died in the county jail from Addison’s disease complications. The decedent was arrested for chasing her daughter with scissors, and pleadings involving supervisory liability related to a denied personal recognizance bond necessary for hospitalization are sufficient to survive dismissal. Vacated in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 22-40559, Categories: health Care, wrongful Death, Prisoners' Rights
J. Westbrook finds the district court improperly dismissed the estate's claims for negligence and wrongful death. The estate filed a survivorship suit a year after the decedent's death, which was dismissed as time-barred. The motion for reconsideration as timely of the claim's construal as wrongful death was dismissed for failure to state a claim. However, the affidavit of merit is not required to propose causation in order to support a negligence-base wrongful death claim. Reversed.
Court: Nevada Court of Appeals, Judge: Westbrook , Filed On: December 28, 2023, Case #: 84978-CoA, Categories: health Care, Due Process, wrongful Death
J. Broniec enters a writ of prohibition ordering the court to enter judgment for the institution's employees in a wrongful death action stemming from the death of a severely disabled man after he slid down in his wheelchair and the wheelchair's belt strangled him. The employees are entitled to official immunity for their decision to use the pelvic harness and how tightly to fasten the straps.
Court: Missouri Supreme Court, Judge: Broniec, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: SC100069, Categories: health Care, Immunity, wrongful Death
J. Abramson finds the county court properly denied the nursing center’s motion to compel arbitration in this negligence and wrongful death suit. The deceased party’s sister and administrator of his estate signed the agreement as the “Responsible Party.” A check box indicating whether a “copy of my guardianship papers, durable power of attorney or other documentation has been provided to the Facility and is attached” is left blank. The deceased’s name was not listed within the arbitration agreement, though it was listed on the admission agreement. The nursing center has failed in its burden to prove that the sister “signed in a representative capacity with the legal authority to bind” the deceased party. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Abramson, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: CV-22-397, Categories: Arbitration, health Care, wrongful Death
Per curiam, the appellate court grants the estate’s motion to dismiss this interlocutory appeal brought by the health care facility, challenging the trial court’s denial of its combined motions to dismiss and for summary judgment in the underlying wrongful death suit. The cause of death for the 78-year-old woman who was recovering from hip surgery was officially Covid-19. A relevant “pandemic liability statute” cited by the facility does not extend an appellate court’s jurisdiction to an interlocutory order from a ruling denying a motion based on the statute’s affirmative defense.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: September 28, 2023, Case #: 09-23-00249-CV, Categories: health Care, wrongful Death, Covid-19
J. Jackson finds a lower court properly dismissed a family's declaration of death claims against a hospital. The family argued that their decedent, who was punched in the side of his head by another bar patron, which resulted in his death, was not considered as deceased when his brain stem died. However, the hospital presented sufficient evidence in court that the brain stem controls all essential bodily functions, even though a respirator has the function to artificially sustain life. Affirmed.
Court: Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, Judge: Jackson, Filed On: September 27, 2023, Case #: CA-2023-1805, Categories: Family Law, health Care, wrongful Death
J. Hutchinson answers in the affirmative the certified question of whether an executive order under which the nursing home seeks immunity provides “blanket immunity for ordinary negligence [claims] to healthcare facilities that rendered assistance to the state during the Covid-19 pandemic.” The question comes from several wrongful-death suits where each decedent passed from complications during the pandemic and alleges that the nursing home negligently failed to control the spread. The court of appeals modifies the question as follows: “Does [the] Executive Order … which triggered the immunity … grant [it] for ordinary negligence claims to healthcare facilities that rendered assistance to the State during the COVID-19 pandemic?” The question is not what the executive order says but what the relevant statute invoked by the order says, which is clear that, except for willful misconduct, any “private person, firm or corporation” who renders “assistance … at the request of the State during [a] disaster shall not be civilly liable for causing the death of, or injury to, any person.” Remanded.
Court: Illinois Appellate Court, Judge: Hutchinson, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 2-22-0180, Categories: health Care, wrongful Death, Covid-19
J. Sannes preserves a wrongful death suit, along with additional cross-claims, that seek to hold a medical administration services provider liable for the death of an inmate who hanged herself in her cell at the Onondaga County Justice Center. The court finds the decedent’s estate sufficiently alleges the medical staff’s actions contributed to her death when they failed to perform adequate suicide, psychological or medical screenings upon her admission.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Sannes, Filed On: August 14, 2023, Case #: 5:22cv1165, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: health Care, wrongful Death, Prisoners' Rights
J. Grasz finds a lower court properly dismissed an estate administrator's inadequate medical care claims against a County. The estate administrator argued that County employees acted deliberately indifferent when they failed to provide a defendant inmate, now deceased due to terminal cancer, with proper medical care services during six months of pretrial detention. However, the County provided sufficient evidence in court that jail house employees provided him with healthcare services and multiple physician opinion requests, placed him in a hold over cell where he could be adequately monitored, and then granted his request for compassionate release once he became deathly ill and emaciated. Affirmed.
Court: 8th Circuit, Judge: Grasz, Filed On: July 12, 2023, Case #: 22-2644, Categories: Civil Rights, health Care, wrongful Death
J. Sales finds a lower court properly ruled in favor of a coroner on a family's breach of duty against a nursing home. The family argued that their decedent, who has Down's Syndrome and suffered from pneumonia, was deprived of adequate medical care before she died of cardiac arrest. However, the coroner presented sufficient evidence in court that the nursing home applied the proper standard of care. Affirmed.
Court: Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Judge: Sales, Filed On: June 22, 2023, Case #: 23UKSC20, Categories: health Care, wrongful Death
J. Herrera mostly declines to dismiss a civil rights case brought on behalf of a deceased prisoner alleging that healthcare and prison officials were “deliberately indifferent to and recklessly ignored” the medical condition of the deceased man, allegedly ultimately leading to his death. While much of this case can survive, the warden and a top health official should be given qualified immunity on claims that they allegedly made the call to remove the deceased man from life support, because there is not adequate evidence that the two officials personally made this decision and even if they did, they were operating based on the “unanimous medical consensus” of other officials and did not go beyond their official discretion, even if it went against the wishes of the deceased man’s family.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Herrera, Filed On: June 16, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv20, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, health Care, wrongful Death
J. Davies finds a lower court properly dismissed an estate administrator's personal injury claims against a hospital. The estate administrator argued that he is entitled to relief after a neurosurgeon injured his father's spinal cord during surgery, which resulted in his eventual death. However, the hospital presented sufficient evidence in court that neurosurgical experts made the decision to move ahead with surgery based on his unbearable pain and discomfort, and that there was no alternative treatment. Affirmed.
Court: Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, Judge: Davies, Filed On: June 13, 2023, Case #: CA-2022-579, Categories: health Care, wrongful Death
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in declining to dismiss a negligence and wrongful death suit against a hospital after a patient died following alleged “use or misuse of a catheter.” That patient initially brought suit over the incident and his widow continued the case after his death. While the hospital sought a plea to the jurisdiction and argued it had provided reasonable care to the patient, that question is “not relevant to our analysis today.” Rather, the question is whether the patient’s injury was “proximately caused” by “tangible property” belonging to the hospital, and the hospital has not been able to show otherwise. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: May 22, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00112-CV, Categories: health Care, Negligence, wrongful Death