Negligent Supervision

Settlement: $600,000

Case Name
Grandfather/Representative of Adult Mentally Handicapped Male (“Joey”) v. Owner of Independent Residential Facility

Jurisdiction
Carroll County, Maryland

Facts and Injuries
Liability
Joey was a 26-year-old developmentally disabled individual diagnosed with cerebral palsy who was being cared for full time by his grandfather. Because his grandfather was getting along in age and having difficulty caring for Joey, the family decided to seek a full time residential facility and found one that was housed is a single family style home.
On only the second day he was there, he fell or jumped out of a second story window because he had been left without supervision of any kind as the caregivers working that day were cooking and doing laundry. The Residential Facility owners claimed Joey had been supervised but he had opened the window and jumped without anyone’s knowledge. We procured the investigation report conducted by the Maryland Department of Health (“MDH”) which determined that he had not been supervised and, in fact, was known to be a flight risk before he was admitted to the facility. The report found the facility was not in compliance with COMAR Title 10, Subtitle 2, pertaining to Developmental Disabilities Regulations. Indeed, Joey needed one to one supervision, meaning one adult was assigned specifically to be with him at all times, and the facility was on notice of that necessity before taking him in as a resident.

Damages
After Joey was found missing, the care providers found him lying on a neighbor’s picnic table and made him walk back into the group home and up the stairs to his bed.
Due to his complaints of pain, an ambulance was called and Joey was transported to the University of Maryland Medical System Shock Trauma where he was found to have fractured two of the vertebrae in his lower back (or lumbar region. Surgery was performed but because of his disability, Joey had to be strapped down thereafter. This was heartbreaking to his family in that his mental health records established he had been abused by his mother as a child, who had strapped him down and left him alone in his room for hours at a time.
and, after several months of rehabilitation, Joey recovered nicely and was able to do most of the things he could do before his fall.
His medical expenses were approximately $85,000 but the amount paid had been significantly lower because they had been paid by Medicaid which has a contract with health care providers that requires them to take a reduction for whatever amount Medicaid deems appropriate. We were able to negotiate even that amount for a further reduction of 1/3 and a percentage of our costs, as is allowed by Maryland law.

Settlement
Joey’s grandfather did not want to pursue litigation and, thus, we settled the case for $600,000.

Special Needs Trust
Joey was on Social Security disability when his injuries occurred. Knowing that a settlement without special considerations would disqualify him from receiving his benefits until the entirety of the settlement had been used, we hired Synergy Services, a company that specializes in setting up Special Needs Trusts to deal with these situations. By setting up such a trust, one can continue to receive their disability benefits as long as their injury settlement proceeds are being used for needs not covered by the disability program and are being managed by an independent trustee. Accordingly, we were able to preserve both his disability benefits and his personal injury settlement proceeds for him.