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

Mealey's Elder Law

September 13, 2024
Panel Affirms Jury Verdict Of Over $418,000 For Estate In Undue Influence Case

ATLANTA — A Georgia appellate court affirmed a jury verdict of $418,758.55 in an undue influence and fraud suit filed by the estate of a man against a woman almost five decades his junior who had moved in with him, promising to take care of him for the rest of his life, finding that the woman “failed to present any meaningful argument” to show a lack of evidence regarding her “egregious conduct” in gaining control over “an elderly, cognitively impaired man’s finances, assets, and property.”
September 12, 2024
West Virginia Appeals Court Affirms Order Transferring Grandparent Visitation Case

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia appellate court affirmed a family court order transferring a paternal grandmother’s petition for grandparent visitation to a circuit court, finding that because the family court did not have jurisdiction to hear the grandparent visitation dispute, it did not abuse its discretion in transferring the case.
September 11, 2024
Citing Lack Of Jurisdiction, Alabama High Court Issues Reversal In Probate Row

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Ruling that a probate court lacked jurisdiction to enter a judgment granting equitable relief in a real property ownership dispute, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed and remanded a circuit court’s denial of a motion to set aside the judgment.
September 10, 2024
Agent Under POA Alleges Negligence Against Care Home Over Pressure Injuries

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An agent pursuant to a power of attorney (POA) sued a rehabilitation facility, a related entity and the facility owners and operators in a Missouri federal court, asserting that their negligence in failing to adequately staff the facility and provide the appropriate care resulted in a former resident developing pressure injuries, causing “pain, suffering and mental anguish.”
September 09, 2024
Class Certification Bid Fails In Remanded ERISA Case Over LTC Premium Hikes

BOSTON — On remand after partial revival of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenge to long-term care (LTC) insurance premium increases, a Massachusetts federal judge declined to certify injunctive relief and damages classes, saying in part that the central dispute “can only be resolved by examining extrinsic evidence that is necessarily individualized in nature.”
September 09, 2024
Company Urges Dismissal After Arbitration Bid Denied In Care Home Negligence Suit

NORTHERN JACKSON, Miss. — One day after a Mississippi federal judge denied a skilled nursing facility’s motion to compel arbitration in a negligence and medical malpractice suit filed against it and an affiliated limited liability corporation by a former resident through his guardian, the company filed a reply brief urging the judge to dismiss the case against it for lack of personal jurisdiction.
September 09, 2024
Care Gig Platform, FTC Reach $8.5M Agreement In Case Over Wages, Cancellations

AUSTIN, Texas — Care.com, a child and older adult care gig platform, will pay $8.5 million to end claims by the Federal Trade Commission that it has systematically deceived caregivers about wages available for potential jobs and at the same time failed to give families looking for care an easy way to cancel their paid memberships.
September 06, 2024
Louisiana Panel Affirms Man With Dementia Lacked Capacity To Author Will

SHREVEPORT, La. — Noting that it “found the orchestrated and intensified efforts” of a caregiver to obtain control over the estate of an elderly man with dementia “alarming,” a Louisiana appellate panel affirmed a lower court’s order denying the caretaker’s petition to probate a handwritten will purportedly authored by the man.
September 04, 2024
Minnesota Panel Affirms Dismissal Of Estate Dispute For Lack Of Jurisdiction

RAMSEY, Minn. — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Sept. 3 affirmed a lower court’s ruling dismissing an executrix’s suit against her brother to quiet title and asserting claims for unjust enrichment and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult related to the sale of their father’s trust property, finding that the lower court correctly determined that it lacked personal jurisdiction due to the brother’s lack of minimum contacts with Minnesota.
September 03, 2024
6th Circuit: No Bargaining Need For Nursing Home’s Pandemic Hiring, Pay Decisions

CINCINNATI — A nursing home owner’s hiring and pay decisions in response to staffing shortages at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 were made due to exigent circumstances and did not require bargaining with the union representing two groups of employees, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, partially affirming and partially reversing a decision by the National Labor Relations Board.
September 03, 2024
HHS Issues Status Report In Decade-Old Medicare Coverage Row Over Hospital Stays

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The secretary of Health and Human Services filed a status report in a Connecticut federal court regarding progress in implementing a final rule to comply with a court order and injunction in a long-running class action in which a district court in 2020 allowed a portion of a class of Medicare beneficiaries placed on observation status after being admitted to the hospital as inpatients to appeal their denial of coverage.
August 29, 2024
Production Of Full Funding Agreement Ordered In DUFTA Case Involving Insurer

WILMINGTON, Del. — Saying his relevance conclusion sprang from “the class action context . . . and the express terms of the Funding Agreement itself,” a Delaware Chancery Court vice chancellor ordered the plaintiffs in a suit over an alleged scheme to strip capital from an insurance subsidiary on which many policyholders depend for long-term care (LTC) disability benefits to produce the funding and contingent fee agreements in their entirety.
August 29, 2024
After $90M Settlement Reached, Judge Dismisses FCA Suit Alleging False CMS Bids

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After being notified that Humana Inc. agreed to pay $90 million to settle a case against it, a Kentucky federal judge dismissed the case, which accused Humana of violating the False Claims Act (FCA) by receiving overpayments after it knowingly submitted false bids to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
August 28, 2024
Woman Sues Long-Term Care Insurer On Breach Of Contract, Bad Faith Theories

OKLAHOMA CITY — A long-term care (LTC) insurer “intentionally, by design, conducted an inadequate investigation in order to avoid the facts that would further substantiate coverage,” a woman with cognitive impairment whose benefits were terminated claims in a complaint filed in a federal court to recover LTC benefits on breach of contract and bad faith theories.
August 28, 2024
Split S.D. High Court Affirms Ruling Denying Bid For Share Of Ranch Owner’s Estate

PIERRE, S.D. — In a 3-2 decision, the majority of the South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling denying a spouse’s petition for an intestate share of her deceased husband’s estate, finding that the lower court correctly determined that the available evidence showed that the decedent intended to exclude his wife from his will.
August 27, 2024
Negligence Claim Against Care Home Dismissed; Ohio Resident Rights Claim Survives

TOLEDO, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio dismissed as time-barred negligence and punitive damages claims against a nursing home operator but found that the administratrix of a former resident’s estate has plausibly alleged that the facility committed negligent acts or omissions, and therefore, breached its duty of care to the resident in violation of his rights under the state’s resident rights statute.
August 23, 2024
Wisconsin Panel Affirms: Beneficiary Can’t Sue Lawyer Over Failure To Amend Will

MADISON, Wis. — A daughter who is a named beneficiary of her father’s will lacks standing to pursue a negligence claim against her father’s attorney for failing to follow her father’s request to amend the will, a Wisconsin panel held, finding that the daughter failed to meet the narrow Auric v. Continental Cas. Co. exception to the state’s rule that a person lacks standing to sue another person’s attorney for his or her actions.
August 23, 2024
Ohio Nursing And Rehab Will Pay $150,000 To End EEOC Bias, Retaliation Suit

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio nursing and rehabilitation facility agreed to pay $150,000 and take other actions to end a complaint in a federal court in that state by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which accused the facility of wrongly firing an older male worker due a lack of available work while offering work to younger female workers.
August 22, 2024
3rd Circuit Affirms Judgment For Insurer, Care Home In Medicare, Civil Rights Suit

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed judgment for an insurer and a skilled nursing facility (SNF) in an estate representative’s suit stemming from the Medicare Advantage plan’s failure to cover continued skilled nursing care and the facility’s failure to document a wound that led to the amputation of the patient’s leg, agreeing with the lower court that the representative failed to exhaust all administrative remedies under Medicare and failed to show that the woman’s wound changed during her stay at the facility.
August 22, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Dismissal For ‘Pesky’ Standing Requirements In Medicare Row

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling dismissing a putative class action filed by the spouse of a decedent pursuant to the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Act regarding a workers’ compensation insurer’s alleged failure to reimburse Medicare for the decedent’s mesothelioma-related treatment, finding that though the requirements of standing “are often pesky,” the spouse lacked standing in this case.
August 19, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Remand Of Nursing Home COVID-19 Deaths Lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 16 affirmed the remand to a state court of a lawsuit brought by relatives and successors of 15 people who died in a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding no federal jurisdiction exists over their claims against the facility and affiliated defendants for elder abuse, wrongful death and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), and affirmed an attorney fees award against the nursing home defendants.
July 22, 2024
COMMENTARY: Behind Closed Doors: The Hidden Crisis Of Nursing Home Neglect

By Tad Thomas
August 13, 2024
D.C. Circuit Affirms Dismissal In Class Suit Over Limited Medicare Home Health

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s dismissal of Medicare beneficiaries’ putative class action against the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over the alleged reduction or refusal by Medicare-enrolled home health providers to provide the beneficiaries with in-home health care, finding that the beneficiaries lack standing to pursue their claims under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
August 12, 2024
La. Panel Reverses, Finds No Cause Of Action Under Nursing Home Bill Of Rights

GRETNA, La. — Noting that claims under the Louisiana Nursing Home Residents Bill of Rights (NHRBR) are limited to injunctive relief, a state appellate panel reversed a trial court’s judgment overruling nursing facility defendants’ peremptory exception of no cause of action, sustained the exception and dismissed the plaintiffs’ putative class claims against them with prejudice.
August 12, 2024
Approval Of $18.2M Class Settlement Granted In Care Home Understaffing Suit

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge granted preliminary approval of an $18.2 million class settlement in a suit over inadequate staffing at memory care and assisted living facilities, also approving the class representatives and class counsel to act on the settlement class’s behalf.