LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A retirement home whose executives were convicted of felony elder abuse for allowing a resident to wander off repeatedly, until he was struck by a car and killed, is protected against lawsuits by California’s two-year statute of limitations, an appeals court ruled.
The family of Mauricio Cardenas sued Horizon Senior Living and two of its managers almost six years after he was killed in December 2014. California law extends the statute of limitations for the victims of a felony to one year after the perpetrators are convicted.
The plaintiffs argued the convictions of the managers for felony elder abuse reset the statute of limitations for their lawsuit against Horizon. But a trial court ruled, and California’s Second District Court of Appeal agreed in a May 19 decision, that because Horizon itself was never convicted of a felony the two-year limit applies.
California’s Victims’ Bill of Rights under the state Constitution was no help, the appeals court added. It allows crime victims to seek restitution, but “Horizon has not been convicted of a crime,” the court said.
The appeals court also rejected the plaintiffs’ argument they could sue under a provision of the California Labor Code requiring employers to indemnify their workers against claims stemming from their jobs, even if they were directed to do something unlawful. The law allows employees to be indemnified, the court said, but it doesn’t “provide access to the employer’s or its insurer’s pocketbook through a third party suit against the employee.”