LANSING, Mich. (Legal Newsline) – An appeals court has sided with an Oxford, Michigan, independent-living facility in a lawsuit over injuries a senior resident sustained after she exited a door that automatically locked on a winter night.
Cosette Rowland, personal representative of the estate of Virginia Kermath, sued Independence Village of Oxford LLC, Unified Management Services and Senior Village Management over Kermath's 2013 death. The Oakland Circuit Court granted the defendants' motion for summary disposition, ruling that Kermath's harm was not foreseeable and that the defendants did not owe her a common law duty of care.
The State of Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed summary disposition for the defendants.
“Plaintiff argues that the trial court erred when it granted defendants’ motion for summary disposition because defendants owed Virginia a common-law duty of care,” wrote judges Michael J. Riordan, David H. Sawyer and Kathleen Jansen. “We disagree.”
Kermath moved into Independence Village in 2010. Her condition allegedly worsened while there, and she was scheduled to move into Rowland’s home in February 2014.
The ruling states a third-party caregiver put Kermath to bed on Dec. 14, 2013, and left for the evening. The next day, Kermath was outside in a nightgown. Her keys were still in her apartment. She had left through a side door that locks automatically. She was outside, where it was only 5 degrees, for nearly 15 minutes. She suffered from hypothermia and frostbite, which contributed to her death a few weeks later.
Rowland sued the facility over allegations of negligence, but the Oakland Circuit Court sided with the defendants.
Rowland rose the notion that the injuries Kermath suffered were foreseeable, but the appeals court judges didn’t see it that way. They pointed out that there wasn’t a genuine issue of material fact that the facility could predict that a resident would die from life-threatening injuries, such as frostbite and hypothermia, after not being able to get back into the building following an exit from the side exterior door.
While Rowland said the nursing home should’ve known considering the residents are elderly and some have lessened mental capabilities, such as Kermath’s dementia condition, the judges pointed out that the home isn’t an assisted-living facility but an independent senior-living facility. Instead, the residents take part in independent life moments like eating breakfast and doing laundry.
The appeals court judges also noted that the nursing home connecting Rowland with independent caregivers to help Kermath with tasks like medication, still doesn’t present “evidence that shows that defendants were at least aware that Virginia was in a more fragile state,” according to the ruling.
The defendants also had no idea that Kermath was outside of the building. There’s no evidence that Rowland, or anyone else from Kermath’s family, told the nursing home that Kermath’s mental state declined during her time there.