Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession (6)2 Feb 98
Quick Summary: The resident’s physician did not order her restrained during the day, and the nursing home’s policy was not to restrain a resident without a physician’s order.
Although the resident was injured while a resident in a nursing home, her plaintiff’s attorneys who filed the lawsuit submitted no meaningful evidence how the nursing home’s supervision was negligent.
The defendant nursing home was entitled to present evidence that the resident’s hospital discharge summary listed her as "able to ambulate." NEW YORK SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, 1997.
A jury’s verdict of no negligence in favor of a nursing home was upheld recently over objections from the resident’s family that the verdict was contrary to the evidence.
The court record in the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, did not indicate how the resident had sustained the injuries that led to the lawsuit.
However, the court was not persuaded of any unfairness in the jury process in this trial. Thus there were no grounds to review the evidence to try to second-guess the jury.
Abrahams vs. King Street Nursing Home, Inc., 664 N.Y.S. 2d 479 (N.Y. App., 1997).