A family member suing a skilled nursing facility for negligence can move forward with her lawsuit that cites the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act, a court ruled this week.
While the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia agreed that Ange Davis can’t sue directly for violations in the Act, she can move forward with negligence per se claims. Davis is suing Golden Living Center in Tifton, GA, related to her mother’s death in 2016, in which she says the care violated federal law.
Golden Living argued the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act was not intended for private right of action. But the court said Davis’ mother is who the law was meant to protect.
Her mother “belongs to the class of persons the statute was intended to protect as she was a resident of a long-term care facility, the alleged harm she suffered was of the same harm the regulations were intended to protect against, and even if, at this juncture, the Court cannot say with certainty that Defendant’s violation of those regulations proximately caused the injuries suffered by Plaintiff’s mother, a causal connection exists between the violation and the harm suffered,” the court wrote.
Golden Living did not return calls by production deadline.
