An appeals court has ordered the
retrial of a lawsuit in which a major nursing home chain had most of
a $29.8 million punitive damages award against it thrown out. The
Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled last week that a Warren County
Circuit Court judge had made a mistake two years ago when he reduced
the damages amount to $163,000.
The appeals court also upheld more than
$4 million of a $4.1 million compensatory damages award in the same
negligence lawsuit. The original case was brought by family members
for Cheatum Myers, an 88-year-old woman who died after alleged
neglect at National Healthcare Corp.'s McMinnville facility.
National Healthcare Corporation
Spokesman Gerald Coggin said the company planned to appeal the
appellate court's findings. It has 60 days to formally request the
Tennessee Supreme Court consider the case. Murfreesboro-based NHC had
73 facilities and more than 9,100 skilled nursing beds, making it the
11th largest nursing home chain in the country at the
beginning of this year.