Case Summaries
Elder Law
[01/28] Gregory v. Cott
The primary assumption of risk doctrine bars plaintiff from recovering on her claims for battery, negligence and premises liability against defendants, where plaintiff is an in-home caregiver providing services to defendant-wife for Alzheimer's disease and the inherent risk of hazardous conduct by an Alzheimer's patient renders the possibility of injury obvious and negates the duty of care usually owed by the defendant for those particular risks of harm.
[01/04] Daniels v. Sunrise Senior Living
In action for elder abuse, wrongful death, and related survival claims against defendant owners and operators of a residential care facility for the elderly, trial court's order denying defendants' petition to arbitrate claims is affirmed, where: 1) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to compel arbitration of any of the claims; 2) Herbert v. Superior Court (1985) 169 Cal.App.3d 718 has no bearing on third party wrongful death claims outside the context of medical malpractice claims pursuant to CA Code of Civil Procedure section 1295; and 3) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining there was a possibility of conflicting rulings on common questions of law and fact if the survivor claims but not the wrongful death claim were ordered to arbitration.
[09/25] Gross v. Rell
In plaintiff's suit against number of defendants, including his conservator, a court-appointed attorney, and a nursing home, asserting both federal and state law claims, district court's dismissal is vacated and remanded where: 1) the scope of federal quasi-judicial immunity for conservators and court-appointed attorneys for conservatees is the same as Connecticut quasi-judicial immunity; but 2) the nursing home in whose care the conservator placed the plaintiff-conservatee is not entitled to quasi-judicial immunity.
[05/14] Cash v. Winn
In a suit for overtime wages brought by an in-home caretaker who was not a licensed or trained nurse, judgment in favor of the plaintiff is reversed, where: 1) the plaintiff performed the duties of a personal attendant and did not spend more than 20 percent of her weekly work time performing other duties, and so was exempt from overtime; and 2) a "regular administration of health care services" exception does not exist under California law as applied to a household employee who is not licensed or trained to perform nursing or other medical services.
[04/30] Bush v. Horizon West
In an action in which one plaintiff sued the operators of a skilled nursing facility for elder abuse based on their alleged neglect in providing her care and treatment at the facility and the plaintiff's daughter sued the same defendants for negligent infliction of emotional distress based on her alleged observation of the harm they caused her mother through their neglect, the trial court's denial of the defendants' motion to compel arbitration is affirmed, where: 1) CCP section 1281.2(c) was not preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act; 2) the parties did not agree that section 1281.2(c) would not apply; 3) the daughter was not bound by the arbitration agreement; and 4) there was no abuse of discretion in the trial court's determination that there was a possibility of conflicting rulings.
[04/24] Knox v. Dean
In a dispute over a conservator's actions with regard to the plaintiff's elderly father, the trial court's grant of the conservator's motion for summary judgment is reversed but his motion for summary adjudication is granted in part, where: 1) the conservator's res judicata defense applied only to acts before a fourth accounting, and the plaintiff's allegations were sufficient to state causes of action against him; and 2) because the conservator failed to establish a complete defense as to certain causes of action, summary judgment was improper, although summary adjudication was properly entered as to the causes of action for fraud and constructive fraud.
[03/23] Thomas v. Westlake
In a suit against an investment advisor and related defendants for churning the account of an elderly client, an order denying the defendants' petition to compel arbitration is reversed, where: 1) the trial court erred by relying on Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.2(c) to deny the petition to compel arbitration, because all defendants were entitled to enforce the arbitration clauses as parties to the agreements containing the clauses or as agents of such parties; and 2) all of the claims pleaded in the operative complaint were arbitrable.
[03/12] Bates v. Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, Inc.
In a suit against a hospital under the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act that the appellant dismissed against the respondent after rejecting an offer to settle, an award of costs to the respondent is affirmed, where: 1) costs awardable under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. sections 1032 and 998 cannot be precluded by an implication that Welfare and Institutions Code section 15657 would preclude them; and 2) the appellant did not meet her burden to establish unreasonableness or lack of good faith in the respondent's section 998 offer.
[02/29] People v. Schoenbachler
In a prosecution for felony grand theft, felony financial elder abuse by embezzlement, and misdemeanor elder abuse, the judgment of conviction is affirmed as modified, where: 1) there was sufficient evidence for the misdemeanor convictions; 2) the embezzlement and grand theft convictions did not constitute multiple convictions for a single offense; but 3) punishment should have been stayed on one of the misdemeanor elder abuse convictions because it was an impermissible multiple punishment for the act charged.
[01/27] Hutcherson v. Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System Administration
In a declaratory judgment action seeking a declaration that Arizona's Medicaid agency had no right at all to recover from an annuity purchased by a husband so that his institutionalized wife could obtain Medicaid coverage or, alternatively, had no right to recover for any costs incurred for the wife's care after the husband's death, the district court's grant of the defendant's motion for summary judgment is affirmed, where: 1) the federal Medicaid Act allows states to reach a deceased community spouse's annuity for costs incurred on behalf of an institutionalized spouse; and 2) nothing in the language of the Act was inconsistent with permitting the state agency to recover from the annuity expenses incurred after the husband's death.
[10/20] NY Coalition for Quality Assisted Living, Inc. v. MFY Legal Services, Inc.
In an appeal from a judgment of the appellate division reversing a trial court order enjoining defendants from violating an assisted living facilities' visitor access guidelines, judgment is affirmed where the guidelines impermissibly restrict advocate access to facility residents, and violate 18 NYCRR 485.14 and the DOH's interpretation of that regulation.