O'Dell v. Vrable III, Inc.

• Decision Date: 15 November 2022
• Docket Number: 20CA18
• Citation: 200 N.E.3d 1208
• Parties: Mark O'DELL, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Bebea Joyce O'Dell, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VRABLE III, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

200 N.E.3d 1208

Mark O'DELL, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Bebea Joyce O'Dell, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.VRABLE III, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 20CA18

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Fourth District, Gallia County.

Released November 15, 2022

Michael J. Fuller Jr., John R. Cummings, and D. Bryant Cummings, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for appellant.

Acacia B. Perko and Kenton H. Steele, Columbus, Ohio, for appellees.

DECISION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY

Hess, J.

{¶1} Mark O'Dell, ("O'Dell") individually and as administrator of the Estate of Bebea Joyce O'Dell ("Bebea") appeals the trial court's judgment granting partial summary judgment to Vrable III, Inc., Vrable Healthcare, Inc., and Jeremy Long. O'Dell raises the following three assignment of errors: (1) the trial court erred when it dismissed all of his claims except for a medical claim against Vrable III; (2) the trial court erred when it dismissed all claims against Vrable Healthcare; and (3) the trial court erred when it dismissed all claims against Jeremy Long.

{¶2} On O'Dell’s first assignment of error, we find that the trial court correctly determined that only one claim survived the Defendants’ summary judgment motion. However, the trial court incorrectly defined that claim as a "medical claim." We find that the single remaining claim is properly characterized as a general negligence claim. Otherwise, we find that the trial court properly dismissed all the remaining claims (i.e., Counts Four/Five, Eight through Eleven, nursing home negligence, punitive damages, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, premises liability). The trial court incorrectly allowed the case to proceed on Counts Six/Seven, the medical claim, and dismissed Counts One/Two, the general negligence claim. We dismiss Counts Six/Seven and allow the case to proceed on Counts One/Two. On O'Dell’s second and third assignments of error, the trial court properly dismissed Vrable Healthcare and Jeremy Long because O'Dell failed to establish a genuine issue of material fact concerning their negligence.

{¶3} We sustain in part and overrule in part, O'Dell’s first assignment of error. We overrule O'Dell’s second and third assignments of error.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

{¶4} Bebea O'Dell was a resident of Abbyshire Place Skilled Nursing & Rehab Center ("Abbyshire"). Bebea's son, Mark O'Dell, is the estate administrator and plaintiff. Vrable III is the state-licensed operator of Abbyshire; Abbyshire and Vrable III are the same entity. The personnel who work at Abbyshire are either employees of Vrable III or Vrable Healthcare. Some Abbyshire personnel, such as the floor nurses and aides, are employees of Vrable III, while certain management level staff, such as Long, the licensed nursing home administrator of Abbyshire, are employees of Vrable Healthcare. Thus both Vrable III and Vrable Healthcare employ persons who work at Abbyshire. In addition to employing Long and other management level staff at Abbyshire, Vrable Healthcare is the sole shareholder of Vrable III.

{¶5} Bebea O'Dell was an 84-year-old woman with dementia

when she was admitted to Abbyshire on August 21, 2018. Prior to that, Bebea lived with her son, Mark O'Dell. According to O'Dell, for several years while Bebea lived with him she used a wheeled walker to get around without problems. On August 2, 2018, Bebea had an episode in which she became upset, violent, and threw a flowerpot at O'Dell, hitting him in the head. Bebea was treated in the geriatric psychiatric unit at Holzer Medical Center. It was that episode that triggered Bebea's family to place Bebea in a nursing home for her safety. According to O'Dell, they chose Abbyshire because it was the only one in the area with a dementia ward. On September 6, 2018, approximately two weeks after she was admitted to Abbyshire, Bebea suffered an unwitnessed fall in her room at about 1:30 a.m. She was taken to Pleasant Valley Hospital and then transferred to Charleston Area Medical Center where she had surgery to repair a fractured right hip. She was transferred to Holzer Senior Care and passed away on October 16, 2018.

{¶6} Mark O'Dell, individually and as administrator of Bebea's estate, filed a complaint against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long (and other entities that were subsequently dismissed and are not relevant to this appeal). Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long were defined in the complaint as both "Defendants" and "Nursing Home Defendants" and Long was additionally identified as "Administrator Defendant." Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long will be collectively referred to as "Defendants."

{¶7} O'Dell’s complaint contained 11 counts, including two "Medical Malpractice" claims even though none of the defendants were physicians.¹ Though the correct term here is "medical claim," the parties and the trial court used the term "medical malpractice claim" and "medical claim" interchangeably. We will use the term "medical claim." The complaint is summarized here:

Count One: Corporate Negligence for Non-Lethal Injuries against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long. Defendants owed a duty of care to provide oversight and management for Abbyshire for (a) staffing, (b) implementing adequate guidelines, policies and procedures governing licensure violations; (c) adopting adequate guidelines, policies and procedures governing the numbers of nursing personnel; (d) adopting adequate guidelines, policies and procedures for responding to compliance complaints; (e) budgeting and resource allocation; (f) corporate compliance and reporting.

Count Two: Same as Count One but for Lethal Injuries.

Count Three: Negligence against Long – Long owed a duty to prevent reasonably foreseeable injuries via the departments he manages, such as nursing, housekeeping, social services, and maintenance. Long failed this duty in areas of staffing to assist with activities of daily living; staffing for medical care; hygiene and sanitary care; safety measures; screening; budgeting and resource allocation; compliance and reporting.

Count Four: Nursing Home Violations for Non-Lethal Injuries against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long. Defendants owed a duty to provide for the well-being of residents by contract or law and they breached this duty in the areas of (a) staffing; (b) implementing adequate guidelines, policies and procedures governing licensure violations; (c) adopting adequate guidelines, policies and procedures governing the numbers of nursing personnel; (d) adopting adequate guidelines, policies and procedures for responding to compliance complaints; (e) compliance with contracts and laws; (f) ensuring residents achieve highest level of well-being; (g) budgeting and resource allocation; (h) corporate compliance and reporting.

Count Five: Same as Count Four but for Lethal Injuries.

Count Six: Medical Malpractice for Non-Lethal Injuries against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long. Defendants and their employees owed a duty to render care and services as a reasonably prudent nursing home would render, but failed to do so by (a) failure to notify doctor of significant changes in condition; (b) failure to respond the changes; (c) failure to develop, implement and update adequate resident care plan; (d) failure to maintain records; (e)-(j) failure to provide sufficient supervision for and number of nursing and medication aide personnel to provide various medical care; (k)-(m) failures with respect to the nursing care plan; (n)-(o) failure to adopt guidelines, policies, and procedures for responding to complaints and address deficiencies and problems; (p)-(r) failures with respect to infection management; (s) failure to follow physician orders; (t)-(v) failures with respect to fluid and nutritional needs; (w)-(y) failure to maintain medical records for diagnosis, treatment, and establishment of plan of care; failure to adequately monitor health status; and prevent the development of pneumonia

.

Count Seven: Medical Malpractice for Lethal Injuries against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long. Same as Count Six except instead of alleging failure to prevent the development of pneumonia, Count Seven specifically alleges a failure to prevent and address the development of pressure sores and infection.

Count Eight: Malice and/or Gross Negligence/Willful, Wanton or Reckless Disregard for Safety against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long.

Count Nine: Fraud against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long.

Count Ten (misnumbered "Eight" in the Complaint): Breach of Fiduciary Duty against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long.

Count Eleven: Premises Liability Claim against Vrable III, Vrable Healthcare, and Long.

In each count, O'Dell described Bebea's injuries as including falls, fractures, urinary tract infections

, lice infestations, extreme pain, suffering, mental anguish, embarrassment, fright, and, in the counts for lethal injuries, death. The 60-page, 11-count complaint initially named four Vrable corporate entities, Long, 10 unidentified John Does, and 10 unidentified "entities."²

{¶8} After the parties engaged in extensive discovery, the Defendants filed a motion for partial summary judgment. Vrable Healthcare and Long sought dismissal from the case entirely on all counts, and Vrable III sought the dismissal of all claims except a medical claim based on allegations that Abbyshire's staff was negligent in their care and treatment of Bebea. The Defendants argued that O'Dell’s complaint could be distilled into a single medical claim: Bebea suffered pain and passed away as a result of a hip fracture and Abbyshire negligently caused or failed to prevent that fracture. They argued that the single medical claim, which is set forth in Counts Six and Seven, could not be transformed into "multiple unrelated causes of action such as fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, premises liability, when Ohio's ‘medical claim’ statute plainly encompasses all of Plaintiff's claims."

{¶9} The Defendants arg...