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

Mealey's Elder Law

March 22, 2024
Panel Affirms Order Granting Disposition For Estate In Row Over Attorney Fees

DETROIT — A Michigan appellate court on March 21 affirmed a lower court order granting summary disposition to an estate in its dispute with the law firm representing a former estate representative, finding that the lower court correctly granted summary disposition to the estate in the firm’s suit seeking to recover attorney fees because no material facts are in dispute regarding the representative’s failure to act in good faith and his exercising undue influence over the decedent.
March 21, 2024
Panel Affirms Ruling In Favor Of Insurer In Bad Faith Suit Over Woolsey Fire Damage

LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court held that a homeowners insurer did not breach the insurance contract or the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and did not commit financial elder abuse because it paid the proper insureds “all (if not more than)” it had a duty to pay under the policy coverages for dwelling repairs, personal property damage and temporary additional living expenses, affirming a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of the insurer in a coverage dispute arising from property damage cause by the Woolsey Fire.
March 20, 2024
Ohio Amusement Park Will Pay $50,000 To Settle EEOC Age Biased Housing Suit

TOLEDO, Ohio — The owner and operator of Cedar Point Amusement Park will pay $50,000 and provide other relief to end a lawsuit in a federal court in Ohio by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing the owner of discriminating against older workers by prohibiting those 30 and older, other than entertainers, from living in employee housing, the EEOC announced March 19.
March 15, 2024
Georgia Panel Affirms Judgment For Beneficiary In Undue Influence Will Contest

ATLANTA — A Georgia appellate court on March 14 affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment for the beneficiary of an estate, finding that the lower court correctly determined that there was a lack of evidence to show that the decedent “lacked testamentary capacity” or “that the beneficiary exercised undue influence over her.”
March 14, 2024
$70,000 Settlement Approved In COVID-19 Wrongful Death Suit Against Nursing Home

MEDIA, Pa. — A Pennsylvania state court judge issued an order approving a $70,000 settlement in a wrongful death and survival action filed against a nursing home and its administrators and operators by the estate of a former resident who contracted COVID-19 and died, finding no objection to the estate’s petition to approve the settlement.
March 14, 2024
Judge Grants Nursing Home’s Motion To Compel Arbitration In Wrongful Death Action

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge on March 13 granted in part a motion to compel arbitration in a wrongful death, negligence and survival suit against a skilled nursing facility (SNF) and related entities after a former SNF resident died, finding that the claims for survival and professional negligence against the facility and its named affiliate will proceed to arbitration because a valid arbitration agreement existed between those entities and the estate.
March 12, 2024
Ohio Panel Affirms Ruling Dismissing Wrongful Death Action Against Nursing Home

CINCINNATI — An Ohio appeals court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a wrongful death action filed against a nursing home by the adult children of a former nursing home resident who asphyxiated and died, finding that the plaintiffs’ allegations failed to “satisfy the governing legal standard to survive dismissal.”
March 11, 2024
Alabama High Court: Lower Court Must Dismiss Wrongful Death Suit Against Care Home

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court on March 8 granted a skilled nursing facility’s petition for writ of mandamus in a wrongful death suit against it, finding that because the court-appointed administrator was “not a proper party to bring suit,” the petition must be granted and the lower court must dismiss the complaint.
March 11, 2024
Judgment Affirmed For New York DOH In Dispute Over Nursing Home Deficiency

ALBANY, N.Y. — A New York appellate court affirmed a lower court order that dismissed a nursing home’s declaratory judgment suit against the New York Department of Health (DOH), seeking to declare as null and void a statement of deficiency (SOD) issued against the nursing home for failing to provide medical records requested by a resident’s daughter within the two-day time frame required by federal regulations, finding that the lower court’s ruling was “not arbitrary and capricious.”
March 11, 2024
Class Certification Bid Draws Opposition In DUFTA Case Involving Insurer

WILMINGTON, Del. — Arguing in part that proposed class representatives “appear to be as unqualified as” one rejected in Gordon v. Sonar Capital Mgmt. LLC, defendants 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 urged the Delaware Chancery Court to deny certification of the proposed class.
March 08, 2024
Georgia High Court Affirms Attorney Fee Denial In Grandparent Visitation Dispute

ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed lower court orders denying a mother’s contempt motion and motion for attorney fees after the lower court revoked a consent order granting grandparent visitation rights to the maternal grandparents, finding that the “court did not abuse its discretion” in denying her motion for attorney fees or determining that a contempt citation was not warranted.
March 06, 2024
Notice Of Order On Brief Filed After Octogenarian’s $2.3M Elder Abuse Verdict

LOS ANGELES — An 87-year-old woman filed a notice in a California court of a judge’s ruling allowing her to file a brief of up to 20 pages regarding her motion for attorney fees after a jury awarded her $2,342,800 in a suit alleging that a rehabilitation facility where she previously resided, its owner and related entities acted negligently and committed elder abuse by failing to provide adequate care, resulting in injuries from falls that caused permanent shoulder damage.
March 04, 2024
Judge: Lack Of Standing, Property Rights Doom Medicare Drug Pricing Law Challenge

WILMINGTON, Del. — That a drugmaker’s “unprecedented” argument that incentives altered by the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug price negotiation provision provide standing to challenge the law fails “should come as no surprise,” and because the company lacks a protected right in selling to the government, its due process claim falls as well, a federal judge in Delaware said March 1 in granting summary judgment to the government.
March 04, 2024
U.S. High Court Won’t Hear Age Bias, Ministerial Exception Appeals In Same Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 4 denied petitions for writ of certiorari filed by the estate of a former Liberty University Inc. professor and the university after the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a summary judgment ruling for the school in the professor’s age bias lawsuit.
February 29, 2024
Judge Finds Medicare Act Precludes Drug Pricing Suit, Court Lacks Jurisdiction

SAN ANTONIO — The Medicare Act precludes a constitutional challenge to recent legislation permitting negotiation over the price the government pays for certain drugs, and dismissal of the lone defendant over which the court had jurisdiction leaves requires dismissal of the remaining two, a federal judge in Texas said in dismissing the case.
February 28, 2024
Pa. Panel Affirms Guardianship For Septuagenarian Deemed ‘Totally Incapacitated’

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania appellate court on Feb. 27 affirmed a lower court order granting a hospital’s petition for adjudication of incapacity and appointment of a guardian for a septuagenarian with multiple health concerns, finding that the lower court correctly determined that the man is “totally incapacitated” and that “permanent guardianship was the least restrictive means.”
February 27, 2024
$50M Bond Discharged After Plea Deal Reached In $38M Nursing Home Fraud Case

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge released a $50 million surety bond imposed on the former owner of skilled nursing facilities the day after the judge accepted the man’s guilty plea for conspiracy to commit health care fraud for the man’s role in a $38.7 million health care fraud scheme involving bribing physicians to have patients entered into the facilities he owned.
February 26, 2024
Split Vt. High Court Affirms Ruling Invalidating Will Portion For Undue Influence

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A split Vermont Supreme Court on Feb. 23 affirmed a lower court ruling invalidating a portion of a will granting a beneficiary the option to purchase the decedent’s home for a reduced cost, finding that partly “invalidating the will was an appropriate remedy” because the evidence shows that the bequest was a product of undue influence.
February 26, 2024
U.S. High Court Denies Age Bias Petition Over Unsealing Arbitration Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 26 denied a petition by a former International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) employee challenging a decision by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that kept her age discrimination arbitration award sealed.
February 22, 2024
Judge To Hold Single Argument On Summary Judgment In Drug Pricing Challenges

TRENTON, N.J. — Oral arguments on summary judgment in four cases challenging the Medicare drug negotiation rules enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) will be heard together, a federal judge in New Jersey said in a docket-only text order.
February 23, 2024
Judgment Granted For Life Insurance Beneficiary In Prudential’s Interpleader Suit

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A New York federal judge granted judgment for one of the named beneficiaries of her deceased cousin’s life insurance policy, finding that the decedent’s half-sister challenging the beneficiary designations of the policy failed to establish an injury necessary “for purposes of standing.”
February 21, 2024
Petition Seeking Ruling On Arbitration Clause Barring Age Bias Claim Denied

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by former International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) employees seeking to appeal a ruling that they were barred from bringing untimely age bias claims under the “piggybacking rule” based on signed arbitration agreements.
February 21, 2024
Tenn. High Court: Arbitration Agreement With Care Home Not ‘Health Care Decision’

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed and remanded an appellate court ruling affirming an order declining to compel arbitration in a son’s wrongful death suit against a nursing home where his deceased father lived, finding that the durable power of attorney (POA) naming the decedent’s daughter as his attorney-in-fact gave her the authority to act for her father in legal matters, including an optional arbitration agreement, even though the POA did not specifically give her the authority to make a “health care decision.”
February 15, 2024
Panel: Reversal Of Foreclosure ‘Required’ Due To No Legal Representative Of Estate

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court on Feb. 14 reversed and remanded a lower court’s judgment of foreclosure on a decedent’s property, finding that because the judgment was entered “without the presence of the deceased mortgagor’s legal representative, the final summary judgment of foreclosure is a nullity.”
February 15, 2024
1st Circuit Reverses Insurer’s Dismissal In ERISA Case Over LTC Premium Hikes

BOSTON — Saying in part that it “cannot resolve the meaning of the ‘subject to’ clause on the current record,” a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 14 reversed dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over long-term care (LTC) insurance premium increases as to one of two defendants and remanded for further proceedings.