$29 Million Nursing Home Judgment Upheld
A Sacramento Superior Court judge has upheld a $29 million judgment against a Northern California nursing home. The judgment stems from the 2005 death of patient Frances Tanner and the judge ruled that there was "overwhelming" and "devastatingly powerful" evidence to support the large punitive damages judgment.
We originally wrote on the story of Frances Tanner two months ago when the original verdict was reached. After awarding Tanner's family $1.1 million for pain and suffering, the jury leveled the staggering $28 million punitive damages judgment due to the evidence of gross abuse and neglect that had occurred at the nursing home and led to Mrs. Tanner's death.
Tanner had become bedridden due to a hip fracture that resulted from a fall was not recognized by the staff and, while confined to a bed, developed a fatal bed sore. Severe bed sores like Mrs. Tanner's are almost always the result of nursing home staff failing to turn the patients properly.
Though the nursing home complained that the punitive damages judgment was excessive, the judge called the trial "a classic demonstration of how well the jury system works." He said the large judgment was justified because the evidence demonstrated that the home "based, time and again, predominantly on a concern for the bottom line" instead of patient care, as evidenced by their improperly trained workers.
Punitive damages are an often-misunderstood part of the legal process. They are separate from compensatory damages, which are designed to compensate victims and/or their families for medical bills, lost wages, and/or pain and suffering that result from the defendant's bad acts. In the Tanner case, this would be the $1.1 million judgment.
Punitive damages, on the other hand, are designed to punish the defendants and remove the financial incentive to cut corners. Due to the pattern of neglect and abuse and concern for profit over patient care in this case, the jury and the judge decided that the $28 million punitive damages was needed to force them to change their entire corporate culture.
For more information on nursing home abuse, visit the Nursing Home Advocates.
Prior posts on this topic:
California Nursing Home to Pay $28 Million in Death
