Sacramento Injury Lawyer Blog

The following blog entry is written to illustrate a common motion filed during civil litigation. Reviewing this kind of filing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse lawsuit and its proceedings.)

PROPOSED TRIAL SEQUENCE cont.

Phase II: Jury Trial on the Amount of Punitive Damages. If the predicates for punitive damages are established in Phase I, the same jury would decide the amount of punitive damages.

Phase III: Bench Trial on UCL and FAL Claims. In this phase, the Court would resolve plaintiffs' claims under the UCL and FAL statutes, including the amount of restitution, if any, and plaintiffs' claim for injunctive relief. The Court would also determine the amount of the civil penalties, if any, pursuant to the District Attorney's claims under the UCL. Plaintiffs anticipate that most (if not all) of the evidence pertinent to the liability and remedy issues on the equitable claims will be introduced in Trial Phases I and II. To the extent necessary, however, the Court could take additional evidence concerning the UCL and FAL claims.

Phase IV: Claims Administration. If plaintiffs prevail, plaintiffs recommend that the Court direct a third party claims administrator to distribute the aggregate class award to individual class members. (See Code of Civil Procedure § 384.) In other words, this phase would be a nonadversary administrative claims procedure in which the overall class award would be allocated to individual class members. (See In re Cipro Cases I & II (2004) 121 Cal. App. 4th 402, 417 [claim administration is an internal class accounting question "that does not directly concern the defendant" as liability and overall damages have already been determined].)

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

The following blog entry is written to illustrate a common motion filed during civil litigation. Reviewing this kind of filing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse lawsuit and its proceedings.)

Plaintiffs' Equitable Claims Under the UCL and FAL Statutes

Legal Background

The UCL prohibits unlawful, fraudulent, or unfair business practices. Because the UCL statute is written in the disjunctive, liability can be established under any of these three prongs. (Cel-Tech Communications, Inc. v. Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Co. (1999) 20 Cal.4th 163, 180.) Plaintiffs' UCL claim is based on all three prongs of the UCL statute. Plaintiffs also seek recovery for defendants' false advertising under the FAL. Because the UCL and FAL claims are equitable claims, they are tried to the Court, not the jury.

Plaintiffs' unlawful practices claim is based on ABC's violations of the underlying staffing requirements, including Health and Safety Code sections 1276.5 and 1599.1.

Plaintiffs' fraudulent practices claim is based on ABC's statements and conduct that were likely to deceive the public into believing that ABC provides adequate nursing staff and complies with the state-mandated minimum of 3.2 PPD. The same evidence of misrepresentations and omissions under plaintiffs' CLRA claim provides an independent basis for liability under the fraudulent practice prong.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading "Class-Action Lawsuit Filed On Behalf Of Sacramento Elder Abuse Victims And Families, Part 6 of 7" »

The following blog entry is written to illustrate a common motion filed during civil litigation. Reviewing this kind of filing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse lawsuit and its proceedings.)

Plaintiffs' CLRA Claim

The CLRA prohibits unfair practices in transactions involving consumers, including representing that defendants' services have characteristics which they do not have or are of a particular standard or quality when they are of another. (Civil Code § 1770(a)(5) and (7).) While the CLRA requires proof of actual damages to recover, that element is easily met for all class members who paid money for services. (The specific number of private pay class members will be confirmed in deposition discovery later this month.) Even if a class member did not pay money, evidence of transactional or lost opportunity costs will suffice. (Meyer v. Sprint Spectrum L.P. (2009) 45 Cal.4th 634, 640-41, n.1.).

Non-disclosures are actionable under the CLRA. (Falk v. General Motors Corp. (N.D. Cal. 2007) 496 F.Supp.2d 1088, 1094; see Daugherty v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (2006) 144 Cal.App.4th 824, 834-35.) Here, defendants both failed to disclose and actively concealed their understaffing, as evidenced by their manipulation of time records, failure to posting actual staffing numbers, and submittal of inflated nursing PPD numbers to the State of California.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading "Chronic Elder Abuse At Sacramento Facilities Leads To Lawsuit, Part 5 of 7" »

The following blog entry is written to illustrate a common motion filed during civil litigation. Reviewing this kind of filing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse lawsuit and its proceedings.)

Statutory Damages Under Section 1430(b)

Section 1430(b) entitles each affected resident to recover up to $500 for each violation. Each day that a facility fails to meet the minimum and/or adequate nurse staffing requirements constitutes a separate violation for each resident in the facility on the understaffed day. For days when the facility failed to provide at least 3.2 PPD, plaintiffs will ask the jury to find a single violation for each patient in the facility, as opposed to two violations for failing to provide adequate staffing (§1599.1) and minimum staffing (§1276.5).

Although plaintiffs need not prove personal injury or actual harm to recover under Section 1430(b), that does not mean that defendants' understaffing resulted in only hypothetical harm, as defendants contend. Through testimony from class members, current and former employees, and expert witnesses, plaintiffs will show that understaffing results in real and tangible consequences.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading "Wrongful Deaths At Sacramento Nursing Homes Prompt Class Action Lawsuit, Part 4 of 7" »

The following blog entry is written to illustrate a common motion filed during civil litigation. Reviewing this kind of filing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse lawsuit and its proceedings.)

The Evidence of Understaffing

Plaintiffs' evidence of understaffing is based primarily on Key Factor Reports prepared each day by ABC's facilities at the express direction of ABC Healthcare, LLC. ABC's witnesses have uniformly testified that the Key Factor Report is the only document kept by the facilities that tracks on a daily basis whether they are in compliance with state law. These Key Factor Reports show more than 10,900 days under 3.2 PPD. An additional 550 violations are confirmed in deficiencies and citations issued by the Department of Public Health (previously DHS). This evidence is corroborated through defendants' admissions in deposition testimony and email.

In addition, ABC destroyed and/or refused to produce Key Factor Reports for roughly 9,250 days. Because defendants admittedly destroyed and have refused to produce these Key Factor Reports, the Court should deem ABC to have failed to provide adequate staffing for each of the days for which no Key Factor Report was produced.

On November 17, 2010, ABC produced, for the first time, its own revised "PPD Analysis." This analysis has apparently been a work in progress for months (if not years).

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading "Sacramento Man Suffers Elder Abuse At Local Skilled Nursing Facility, Part 3 of 7" »

The following blog entry is written to illustrate a common motion filed during civil litigation. Reviewing this kind of filing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse lawsuit and its proceedings.)

Plaintiffs' Section 1430(b) Claim

Legal Background

Section 1430(b) creates a private right of action for residents of ABC nursing facilities to recover up to $500 for each facility's violation of any state or federal law or regulation. Under plaintiffs' single enterprise allegations, all defendants are jointly and severally liable for their violations of Section 1430(b) and the other claims asserted.

Plaintiffs' Section 1430(b) claim is predicated on defendants' violations of both (1) Health & Safety Code section 1276.5, which requires each facility to provide a minimum of 3.2 nursing hours per patient (3.2 PPD), and (2) Health & Safety Code section 1599.1, which imposes the additional obligation to employ an adequate number of qualified personnel (including nursing personnel) to carry out all of the functions of the facility.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading "Sacramento Family Sues Nursing Home For Elder Abuse, Part 2 of 7" »

The following blog entry is written to illustrate a common motion filed during civil litigation. Reviewing this kind of filing should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse lawsuit and its proceedings.)

PLAINTIFFS’ TRIAL BRIEF

OVERVIEW OF PLAINTIFFS' CLAIMS

This class-action lawsuit concerns chronic understaffing at twenty-two California skilled nursing facilities operated by ABC Healthcare, LLC and its parent company, ABC Healthcare Group, Inc (hereinafter “ABC”). Plaintiffs are current and former residents of ABC's nursing homes (Resident Class) and family members that paid money to place residents at those facilities (Family Member Class). Several of these facilities are located in Sacramento.

Plaintiffs allege that ABC failed to meet California's minimum staffing requirements and concealed from the consuming public the fact that its facilities were understaffed. These and related allegations support plaintiffs' four causes of action based on violations of: (1) Health and Safety Code section 1430(b); (2) the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA); (3) unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices under California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL) (Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 17200 et seq.); and (4) California's False Advertising Law (FAL) (Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 17500 et seq.).

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading "Sacramento Skilled Nursing Facilities Part Of Elder Abuse Lawsuit, Part 1 of 7" »