The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that a state law allowing residents to sue skilled nursing facilities limits compensation to $500.
According to court documents, the case examined an ambiguous provision in the 1982 Long-Term Care, Health, Safety, and Security Act. The statute is aimed at allowing nursing home residents to sue on the grounds that their rights had been violated. In a 5-2 decision, the state’s highest court interpreted the law to mean that residents may collect no more than $500 for violations, regardless of the total number. The two dissenting justices argued the law actually intended to set a $500 cap for each violation of a patient’s rights, not for the entire suit.
Justice Ming W. Chin, author of the majority decision, noted that lawyers for nursing home residents still were entitled to collect legal fees and that injunctions could be issued to prevent future abuse. Residents also may sue under different laws such as the Elder Abuse Act, which provides more compensation, he said.
Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar said in his 26-page dissent, however, that the $500 cap was “plainly insufficient to fulfill the statute’s purpose to deter and remedy violations of nursing home patients’ rights.”
He specifically cited the pandemic, noting that the majority’s decision “deprives nursing home residents of an important tool to deter and vindicate violations of their rights.”
This article appeared in the McKnight’s Business Daily, a joint effort of McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
