The Utah Supreme Court recently ruled that governmental immunity cannot prevent a claim for wrongful death. The case involved a minor who had been placed in a ‘community based proctor home.’ The boy had previously escaped on multiple occasions and, as a result, it was foreseeable he would attempt to do so once again. While left unsupervised, the boy once again escaped supervision. He fell down some stairs and, as a result of his injuries, died. The parents brought a wrongful death lawsuit for the loss of their son. The State of Utah sought to dismiss the claim on the basis that lawsuits for wrongful death as a result of negligence were precluded by the Governmental Immunity Act under the ‘incarceration’ provision. The Utah Supreme Court held that a claim for negligence based on wrongful death was not precluded because the boy was not ‘incarcerated’ but was simply under state supervision. The full case can be read here.

If you need more information about wrongful death claims, request a free booklet about Wrongful Death and the Law here.

The Utah Supreme Court recently held that health care providers cannot force the spouse and children into arbitration for wrongful death claims due to medical malpractice. In Bybee v. Abdulla, the plaintiff brought a claim for wrongful death when her husband died as a result of alleged medical negligence. The healthcare provider had an arbitration agreement with the deceased husband and claimed that the arbitration agreement also waived the wife's right to go to court.... even while the healthcare provider retained their right to sue the husband for collection of fees. The Utah Supreme Court recognized that the wife and her children did not agree to arbitration and could not be forced to give up their rights of court access to redress the wrong. The full case can be read here (pdf).

Tags: wrongfuldeath, heirs

175 surgical mistakes in 30 months. That's the number of times a surgeon or hospital made a mistake which actually caused harm to a patient. 253 close calls. That's the number of times medical professionals made a mistake, but corrected the error before any 'harm' to the patient. Obviously, it's not that there are too many lawsuits, lawyers, or 'greedy' plaintiffs, it's that there are too many surgeons, hospitals, and nurses committing errors. If 175 airplanes fell out of the sky every month, due to pilot error, would we blame the families seeking compensation for the loss of their mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and siblings? As the saying goes, don't hate the players, hate the game. It's time for serious medical reform, an open system where mistakes are not hidden from patients and where those making the mistakes don't blame the victims for seeking compensation because they had their thyroid gland removed for cancer, only to find out the lab screwed up and there was no cancer in the first instance. For all of the grim details, you can get the June 26, 2007 report direct Patient Safety Authority, a Pennsylvania state run and funded organization created to reduce the number of people injured by medical malpractice. Utah should be so lucky to get such an organization..

"Hospitals are terrible places for sick people." Reaffirming the idea that, if you've got humans involved, you will have human error, a recent Forbes article discusses the seven scariest hospital risks. The article does an excellent job of detailing the inherent problems in our hospital industry, and offers helpful advice on how to avoid becoming the victim of medical mistakes which include surgeon errors, infection, and incorrect medications. The article observes that: "between 40,000 and 100,000 people die every year because of doctors' mistakes, including surgical mishaps and drug mix-ups. One big problem: Hospital patients may get the wrong drug one time out of five, according to a study by Auburn University. The death toll from mistakes is at least as bad as that from car accidents or breast cancer, and maybe as bad as that from strokes."

Robert Bork, a former United States Supreme Court nominee, and ardent supporter of 'tort reform' filed a slip and fall lawsuit against Yale Club recently. Apparently, Bork fell while attempting to step up onto the dais to give a speech. He suffered a hematoma in his leg, head injuries and months of physical therapy. Prior to this fall, Bork supported the idea that there are too many personal injury lawsuits and that reform was needed to curb an alleged overabundance of lawsuits. Of course, personal injury lawsuits only make up a small percentage of court cases, and Bork can now count himself lucky that reforms haven't prevented him from seeking compensation for the failure of Yale Club to provide adequate stairs and a handrail.