$29 Million Nursing Home Abuse Verdict Upheld (USA)

July 15th, 2010


A Superior Court judge in Sacramento just upheld a $29 million verdict in a nursing home abuse case. The Sacramento Bee said that the “strongly worded ruling” involved a verdict against a nursing home company related to the 2005 death of a senior patient.


Judge Roland Candee rejected Horizon West Healthcare’s arguments seeking a new trial or “significantly reduced damages” in a case involving Frances Tanner, 79, a retiree who worked for the FBI and the IRS, said The Bee. Tanner suffered from mild dementia when she moved into Colonial Healthcare. Seven months later, following a fall and an undiagnosed hip fracture, she was dead due to an infected bedsore, said The Bee.


Candee said the evidence presented was “overwhelming” and “devastatingly powerful” and held up the verdict and damage awards against Horizon, which owns 33 nursing homes located, for the most part, in Northern California, wrote The Bee. Testimony revealed Horizon illegally under staffs its sites and conducted business “based, time and again, predominantly on a concern for the bottom line” and not on sympathetic patient care, wrote Candee, quoted The Bee. The jury’s obvious intent was to “discourage future wrongful conduct” by its $28 million punitive damage award, added Candee.



Abridged
SOURCE:     The NewsInferno
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