Mealey's Elder Law : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Elder Law

July 03, 2024
Death Suit Against Memory Care Facility Assigned To Magistrate For Mediation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri federal magistrate judge on July 2 was assigned to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) through a notice of inclusion in a mediation program in a wrongful death suit filed the previous day against a memory care facility and a related entity asserting that the defendants acted negligently in failing to implement safety procedures and provide adequate staffing to prevent a former’s resident’s “avoidable” fall, which purportedly led to his death.
July 02, 2024
11th Circuit Remands For Claims To Be Stayed In Care Home Licensure Class Suit

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated and remanded a district court’s judgment with instructions to stay the claims in a putative class action filed by the representatives of former residents against the Florida skilled nursing facilities where they lived alleging that the facilities fraudulently obtained their licenses, finding that the plaintiffs waived objections to a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation that the district court adopted.
June 28, 2024
High Court Overrules Chevron Deference, Changes Standard For Regulatory Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 voted 6-3 to overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference as incompatible with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations, changing governing precedent for federal courts reviewing agencies’ regulatory actions.
June 28, 2024
N.J. Jury Awards $600K To Estate In Wrongful Death Suit Over Improper Restraint

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A New Jersey state court jury returned a $600,000 verdict against a behavioral health facility and its employees related to the death of a patient who incurred blunt force trauma to his head and spine when he was improperly restrained, attributing 35% fault to the mental health technician who restrained the decedent and 65% fault to his supervisor.
June 27, 2024
Parties Settle Wrongful Death Suit Over Alligator Attack In 55-Plus Community

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The personal representative of the estate of a Florida retirement community resident who died after an alligator attacked her near her home settled a wrongful death suit filed in a Florida state court against the company operating the community, asserting that the woman’s death resulted from the company’s negligence in failing to remove the alligators or to warn of the danger caused by them.
June 26, 2024
Settlement Proposed By Canal Owner In Suit Over Alligators Killing Octogenarian

SARASOTA, Fla. — A nonprofit corporation that owns property containing a canal where alligators attacked and killed an 80-year-old woman filed a notice of serving a proposal for settlement in a Florida state court after the corporation and multiple parties were sued by the decedent’s estate for wrongful death, negligence and strict and vicarious liability related to their failure to remove the alligators that purportedly posed a risk to nearby residents.
June 25, 2024
Texas Panel Affirms Ruling Dismissing ‘Baseless’ Pleading In Probate Dispute

EL PASO, Texas — A Texas appellate court affirmed a probate court’s dismissal of a son’s application to probate a will his mother executed in Mexico after the court previously admitted to probate a will she executed in Texas, finding that the probate court correctly dismissed the son’s application to probate the Mexico will as “baseless in law.”
June 24, 2024
Mass. High Court Affirms Ruling Denying LTC Coverage In Row Over Spousal Assets

BOSTON — A unanimous Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a lower court decision upholding a ruling issued by a Medicaid hearing board denying a nursing home resident’s application for Medicaid long-term care (LTC) benefits, finding that the board correctly determined that the resident failed to meet his burden of eligibility pursuant to state regulations to show lack of cooperation by his wife’s refusal to provide her financial information.
June 17, 2024
Judge Dismisses Hurricane Laura Coverage Suit After Parties Announce Settlement

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana on June 14 dismissed without prejudice a retirement community insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its Hurricane Laura damage after the parties announced they reached a settlement.
June 17, 2024
Decedent’s Heir Seeks Florida High Court Review Of Ruling Affirming Foreclosure

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — An heir to a man who died during foreclosure proceedings against his property seeks discretionary review from the Florida Supreme Court of a Florida appellate court’s ruling affirming a foreclosure judgment on the decedent’s homestead, asserting that review is warranted because the ruling conflicts with other rulings of the Florida Supreme Court and Florida appellate and trial courts.
June 14, 2024
Panel: Lower Court Wrongly Found Arbitration Binding In Suit Against Care Home

CLEVELAND — An Ohio appellate court on June 13 reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling that found an arbitration agreement binding for a survivorship claim in a suit filed against a nursing home by the administrator of the estate of a former resident, finding that the lower court erred in requiring arbitration of the claim because the administrator lacked authority to enter into the arbitration agreement.
June 13, 2024
Dismissal Of Bad Faith Claim Denied In Estate Row With Insurer Over ‘Total Loss’

SCRANTON, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge on June 12 denied a homeowners insurer’s motion to dismiss a bad faith claim in a suit filed against it by the estate of a woman alleging that the insurer’s failure to pay a claim for water damage resulted in the property being “a total loss,” finding dismissal inappropriate at this point in the litigation.
June 12, 2024
Massachusetts AG Announces $4M Understaffing Settlement With Care Home Operator

BOSTON — Following an investigation into understaffing at nursing homes operated by Next Step Healthcare LLC, the Massachusetts attorney general announced that specified state agencies and her office, in its largest nursing home settlement, resolved allegations of nursing home neglect regarding Next Step’s failure to protect residents at the 16 nursing homes it operates, requiring Next Step and related parties to pay $4 million and to fund and participate in compliance monitoring to improve staffing levels.
June 11, 2024
Colorado High Court: Privilege Between Physician And Patient ‘Survives’ Death

DENVER — A unanimous Colorado Supreme Court on June 10 discharged a rule to show cause and lifted a stay on a lower court’s in camera review of a decedent’s medical records in a dispute between siblings over the validity of their father’s most recent will, finding that though “the physician-patient privilege survives the privilege holder’s death,” disclosure of the decedent’s medical records is permitted under the testamentary exception if needed for estate administration.
June 11, 2024
Judge Partly Denies Insurer’s Summary Judgment Motion In Hurricane Laura Dispute

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana held that whether an insured’s submitted additional damages or mitigation expenses may be considered within its original loss event or as a separate loss event is inherently a fact question that is contingent on the state of repairs or mitigation of the insured property when Hurricane Delta occurred, partly denying an insurer’s motion in a coverage dispute arising from Hurricane Laura.
June 10, 2024
Judge Rules In Favor Of Senior Care Liability Insurer In Dispute With Nursing Home

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted a senior care liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying $3.3 million default judgment entered against a nursing home insured, finding that the insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify the insured in the underlying lawsuit brought under Illinois’ Nursing Home Care Act and Wrongful Death Act.
June 10, 2024
Seniors Sue Wells Fargo For Fraud In $300M Ponzi Scheme Involving Insurers

MIAMI — Two seniors filed a putative class action against Wells Fargo in a Florida federal court for its role in allegedly aiding and abetting fraud in a “massive” Ponzi scheme purportedly orchestrated by owners of insurers, some of whom are now in receivership, resulting in elderly investor victims losing more than $300 million after scheme operators sold them promissory notes secured by collateral in stranger-oriented life insurance policies (STOLIs).
June 06, 2024
U.S. High Court Affirms 8th Circuit Ruling In Row Over Estate Tax, Share Valuation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 6 unanimously affirmed an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision upholding a district court’s ruling granting summary judgment to the U.S. government in a dispute over its determination that an estate owed an additional $889,914 in taxes, finding that the contractual obligation to redeem the shares of the decedent by the corporation he jointly owned with his surviving brother did not reduce the value of those shares.
June 04, 2024
Iowa High Court Reverses Lower Court Ruling For New Trial In Heirs’ Dispute

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court reversed and remanded a lower court judgment that granted in part a dismissal motion and ordered a new trial in a will contest between a decedent’s six children, finding that the movant was not entitled to a new trial due to a failure to join indispensable parties because the daughter who consented to dismissal of claims against her had previously participated in the litigation.
May 31, 2024
Judge Orders Brian Wilson’s Co-Conservators To File Level Of Care Determination

LOS ANGELES — After co-conservators for Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys, signed letters of conservatorship, a California state court judge on May 30 issued an order requiring the co-conservators to consult with Wilson’s children regarding health care decisions and to file within 60 days a determination of the conservatee’s appropriate level of care.
May 31, 2024
Judge Tosses Seniors’ Suit Against Oklahoma Officials Who Denied Medicaid Benefits

OKLAHOMA CITY— An Oklahoma federal judge dismissed with prejudice a suit filed on behalf of three senior citizens whose applications for long-term care Medicaid benefits were denied, finding that the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) did not violate federal law by requesting information about the seniors’ asset transfers and associated promissory notes because the requested information the seniors failed to provide was necessary to determine Medicaid eligibility (Penelope Lamle, et al. v. Deborah Shropshire, et al., No. 22-391, W.D. Okla., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 95213).
May 29, 2024
Maine High Court Affirms Ruling That Residual Estate Passes To Decedent’s Daughter

PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a probate court’s ruling that a decedent’s daughter is the beneficiary of the decedent’s residual estate, finding that because the probated will did not address disposition of the residuary estate if the decedent survived her husband, who predeceased her, the probate court correctly determined that pursuant to intestate succession, the decedent’s daughter is the beneficiary of the residual estate.
May 28, 2024
Illinois High Court Hears Arguments In Row Over Care Facilities’ COVID Immunity

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in estates’ appeal of an appellate court decision answering in the affirmative a question certified to it from a lower court after modifying it to ask whether a specific executive order issued by the Illinois governor grants “immunity for ordinary negligence claims to healthcare facilities that rendered assistance to the State during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
May 24, 2024
LTC Insurer Gets Extension To Answer Class Complaint Alleging Unfair Rate Hikes

CHICAGO — In a docket entry, an Illinois federal judge granted a long-term care (LTC) insurer an extension to answer an amended complaint in a putative class action alleging that the insurer sought premium increases in different states and for different amounts without considering policy language prohibiting nonuniform rate increases.
May 21, 2024
Federal Jury Finds Nashville Deputy Fire Marshal Subjected To Age, Gender Bias

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal jury in Tennessee returned a verdict largely for a Nashville deputy fire marshal who alleged that she was prevented from becoming the fire department’s first female fire marshal due to the “good ole boys club,” which resulted in a younger and less experienced male employee from another department being chosen for the job.