MD jury awards $1.85M to nursing home resident left outside in heat

Morningside House of Satyr Hill is shown in Parkville on Dec. 26, 2025. (Brian Compere/The Daily Recod)

by Ian Round

Earlier this month, jurors in Baltimore County awarded a $1.85 million judgment to a nursing home resident with dementia who suffered heat stroke after being left outside for several hours.

The award is connected to a June 2024 incident at Morningside House of Satyr Hill, a facility in Parkville that operates within the broader Morningside House network of elder care properties across the mid-Atlantic and Florida. There, staff took resident Ann McShane outside, then neglected to bring her back in for at least four hours. Later that afternoon, staffers couldn’t find her for dinnertime. They eventually located her “slumped over” in the courtyard, severely sunburned, covered in vomit and barely responsive, her lawsuit stated.

“I went outside to get some fresh air and I was yelling for hours for someone to let me in,” McShane, who is in her 70s, told first-responders and hospital staff, according to the incident report filed by the Baltimore County Fire Department.

She was hospitalized for a week and a half.

The incident was not a one-off for Morningside House of Satyr Hill. State regulators with the Office of Health Care Quality (OHCQ), a division of the Maryland Department of Health, have cited the nursing home for failing to not only properly administer and document resident medications, but also to provide mandatory incident reports after residents’ injuries and falls.

Maryland has also issued “deficiency notices” after the elopement of at least two memory-care residents, McShane’s complaint states. In one case, staff failed to account for a resident after a fire drill; the person was returned after a concerned neighbor called 911. In another case, staff didn’t know a resident got out because the alarm system was not working.

Beth Sinnott, executive director of Morningside House of Satyr Hill, said in a brief interview that the organization takes such incidents “very seriously” and has acted to make sure this doesn’t happen again. She declined to say what had changed.

“The safety and wellbeing of our residents is our highest priority,” Sinnott said.

Morningside House was represented by the law firm Kiernan Trebach; a lawyer declined to comment.

McShane, who was represented by Owings Mills attorneys Allen Honick and Dustin Furman, sued in December 2024, alleging negligence and breach of contract. She now lives in an assisted living facility in White Marsh, Honick said, and while she has recovered from her physical injuries, the heat stroke left “significant lasting effects on her overall wellbeing.”

The jury on Dec. 17 awarded her $1.85 million, all for noneconomic damages, Honick said. She is set to receive $965,000 due to the cap on such damages.

McShane was the named plaintiff; her sister served as a guardian ad litem during the proceedings after the defendant raised concerns about her competency.

“Had the Plaintiff and her family known that Morningside had a pattern of ignoring and failing to implement OHCQ corrective action plans,” her complaint stated, “especially those addressing safety, medication management, and incident reporting for memory care residents, the Plaintiff would never have become a resident at Morningside.” 

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MD jury awards $1.85M to nursing home resident left outside in heat 

I-TEAM Update: MO Man Files Federal Lawsuit, Claims 'False Imprisonment' in Guardianship

KFVS12 News The St. Francois County man whose guardianship case I profiled in the fall of 2013 filed a federal lawsuit, claiming he was falsely imprisoned and his civil rights were violated.

Richard Wann's case names numerous defendants, including St. Francois County, Public Administrator Kenneth Rohrer, and the attorneys and judge on his case along with the local hospital and nursing home he lived in for eight and a half months.

Richard Wann

According to court documents, Wann was admitted to the hospital for a colonoscopy but instead of being released to return home, he was "admitted to the geriatric ward based on a false assessment of his mental state."

"Thus began the nightmare of involuntary imprisonment," Wann's attorney Stephen Banton alleged.

Wann is seeking a jury trial and any damages the court deems appropriate.

Banton filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on June 8, 2015.

Source:
I-Team Update: Man Files Federal Lawsuit, Claims False Imprisonment in Guardianship

See Also:
I-Team Investigation: Stuck in the System
I-Team Investigation Stuck in the System, Part Two

Jury Selection Begins in Indicted Ohio Judge Case

Jury selection has begun in the trial of an Ohio juvenile court judge accused of misusing county credit cards and backdating court documents.

Hamilton County Judge Tracie Hunter has pleaded not guilty to felony charges, including tampering with evidence, forgery and theft in office.

The selection from a pool of about 60 potential jurors began Monday for Hunter’s trial in Hamilton County court in Cincinnati.

The Ohio Supreme Court disqualified Hunter from acting as a judge after her indictment.

Full Article and Source:
Jury Selection Begins in Indicted Ohio Judge Case

MA Jury Hands Down $14m Negligent Care Verdict to "Send Message" to Nursing Homes!

A Massachusetts jury has awarded $14 million to the family of a nursing home resident who died due to a pressure ulcer, dehydration and other conditions linked to negligent care, according to local news reports.

The majority of the award — $12.5 million — is for punitive damages. Superior Court Judge Peter B. Krupp told the jury that punitive damages could be awarded to send a message to the nursing home industry as a whole, the Boston Globe reported Thursday.

Krupp's jury instruction is a point of contention in a forthcoming appeal, defense attorney Lawrence Kenney told the Globe.

Kenney represented Radius HealthCare Center, a nursing home in the town of Danvers, the newspaper stated. Radius resident Genevieve Calandro's multiple health problems — which also included uncontrolled diabetes and a urinary tract infection that had invaded her bloodstream — were discovered after the 90-year-old fell out of a wheelchair and was hospitalized in July 2008. She died the next month.

Radius, which now has closed, admitted Calandro received substandard care but denied this resulted in her death.

Full Article and Source:
Jury Hands Down $14m Negligent Care Verdict to "Send Message" to Nursing Homes

Binding Arbitration Unhelpful in Elder Care Dispute

When Karen Fritz retired from a career at Rosauers Supermarkets nine years ago, she began taking care of her aging mother.

Soon, it became apparent her mom, Alice Newton, could no longer look out for herself. Her vision was failing. She was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Fritz moved in with her. It was a challenge, but it was also a joy, Fritz said. They planted a garden together. Fritz would put her mom in her wheelchair and take her out shopping.

“We had a lot of fun,” said Fritz, who is now 71.

But in 2009, Newton stopped sleeping well. She wouldn’t stay in her bed at night. Fritz, exhausted, turned to a new facility in Spokane Valley for help. Fritz put her mom in the center for a few days of respite care, so she could get some badly needed rest.

What happened at the Pine Ridge Alzheimer’s Special Care Center over the next six days is a matter of sharp dispute, and of a legal process that’s done virtually nothing to clarify that dispute. Fritz says her mother returned home with unexplained bruises and rug burns, complaining in consistent and specific ways about abuse and threats from caregivers at the center.

The center denies that it abused or neglected Newton and says the ailing woman made many accusations that were, on their face, untrue. A state inspector was coincidentally at the center during Newton’s stay and investigated her claims, finding that the center had improperly turned off her bed alarm and not investigated her claims quickly enough, but issued no abuse or neglect citations, said Gerald Kobluk, the attorney who represented Pine Ridge and its owner, JEA Senior Living.

“JEA Senior Living is one of the good guys out there,” Kobluk said. “They have an exceptional reputation and a spotless record.”

The case exemplifies many of the legal and personal challenges that surround an aging population, including the highly uncertain way that many claims against elder care facilities are resolved. When she put her mother into Pine Ridge, Fritz agreed to resolve almost all disputes through binding arbitration. An arbitrator awarded her $150,000 in December based on her claim of negligence but ruled in favor of the center on Fritz’s claims of neglect and abuse.

Under state law, negligence is a “failure to exercise ordinary care.” Under the Vulnerable Adult Protection Act, neglect is a “pattern of conduct or inaction” that causes harm by someone with a duty to care for a vulnerable adult.

Fritz’s attorney, Doug Spruance, calls it “an impossible ruling,” and an example of the way that binding-arbitration agreements limit a plaintiff’s ability to seek justice. He sees the finding as contradictory, the kind of thing that should be tested on appeal.

“You can’t have no neglect and have negligence,” he said. “I’ve won losers and I’ve lost winners throughout my career. I’ve never seen something that I feel so strongly would be reversed on appeal.”
The use of binding-arbitration agreements is increasing as long-term-care facilities try to hold down their liability expenses, which are steadily rising. Critics of the agreements say that many people – like Fritz – enter them unknowingly or thoughtlessly, and are signing away their rights to a jury trial or appeal.

Full Article and Source:
Shawn Vestal:  Binding Arbitration Unhelpful in Elder Care Dispute

Grand Forks Co. not liable for guardian

GRAND FORKS — It took a jury only about a half-hour Friday to decide Grand Forks County was not liable for any misdeeds by the county’s former public administrator Barb Zavala in her oversight of assets of Paul Veum, a ward of the county.

The four men and two women on the jury heard two days of testimony and a full morning of closing arguments by attorneys Friday. The verdict, read out in court by state District Judge Richard Geiger, found Zavala did “breach a fiduciary duty owed to Paul Veum” but that the breach didn’t cause any damages to Veum.

Zavala was not on trial in this civil case, but the county, as her employer, may have been on the hook for any damages.

A year ago Veum sued the county over what he claimed was mishandling by Zavala and her assistant, Cathi Westensee-Fisk, who acted as public administrators over Veum’s property and bank accounts for 90 days in 2011.

Veum, through his attorney, Tim Lamb, sought about $30,000 in damages, including cash and a 2002 pickup he claimed went missing while Zavala was his guardian and conservator. He also sought at least $50,000 for “pain and suffering,” but Judge Geiger limited the jury to finding only for “economic damages.”

That issue, and the larger one of whether Zavala “was acting within the scope of her employment” with the county, were not decided since the jury first found she caused no damages.

Veum, 77, lives in a nursing home in Lakota. He testified, despite showing the effects of Parkinson’s and dementia that were at issue in the trial. Under cross-examination by Howard Swanson, the county’s attorney, Veum said he couldn’t say for sure what Zavala took, if anything.

In his closing argument, Lamb told the jury to “use your common sense.”

Referring to Zavala and Westensee-Fisk, Lamb said, “If they didn’t breach their fiduciary duty, he’d still have stuff.”

Swanson admitted, during his closing statement, that Zavala failed to properly inventory and report on Veum’s property and bank account and what she did with it. But her failures “didn’t cause any of his property to go away,” and there was no evidence Zavala stole or mishandled any of it, Swanson said.

Swanson said he was pleased with the verdict and called it “consistent with what our position has been all along.”

Lamb said he was disappointed but respected the jury’s decision.

Zavala was ordered to take the stand this week, but she declined to answer questions from Lamb, citing her Fifth Amendment rights to not incriminate herself. State and federal prosecutors have been working on possible criminal charges against Zavala since late 2011.

The Veum case highlighted the unusual nature of the traditional office of public administrator in North Dakota counties. Grand Forks, after Zavala, was one of the last to contract out the services to a professional firm experienced in taking over the financial affairs of vulnerable adults.

Swanson’s argued that although Zavala was a county employee during her time as public administrator from 2008 until early 2012, the nature of the office under state law meant only a judge, not the county, had any supervisory control over her.

The Veum verdict may affect a similar lawsuit Lamb has brought against the county over Zavala’s handling of the property of Faith Krueger, an elderly Grand Forks woman.

t’s set to go to trial Sept. 10, also before Judge Geiger, and also with Swanson representing the county.

“I learned some things that should help in that case,” said Lamb, who told the jury this was his first courtroom trial. “But it’s a whole different set of facts in the Krueger case.”

Full Article and Source:
Grand Forks Co. not liable for guardian

See Also:
Elderly Claim County Exploitation

Jury Trial Expected in Jeffrey Schend Case

A former Appleton guardian accused of stealing from his elderly and disabled clients is expected to go to trial in July.

Jeffrey M. Schend, 45, appeared in Outagamie County Court today for a status conference on six felony counts of theft and one misdemeanor theft count.

Judge Gregory Gill Jr. told attorneys the case would likely go to trial in July, though didn’t immediately set dates for the trial, which is expected to last a week.

As a guardian, Schend was appointed by county judges to handle finances for elderly and disabled people deemed incompetent to manage their own affairs.

Officials weren’t able to account for about $500,000 from the estates of his former clients.

The trial had been scheduled to begin [March 12], though was delayed based on the continuing investigation. Outagamie County hired a forensic accountant to review Schend’s finances.

The review was recently completed, and attorneys are expected to meet with the accountant as soon as next week.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Melinda Tempelis said it’s still likely prosecutors would file additional charges against Schend before the case reaches trial.

Full Article and Source:
July Trial Expected in Case of Jeffrey M. Schend, Former Appleton Guardian Charged with Theft of Elderly, Disabled Clients

See Also:
The Jeffrey Schend Case

Jury Awards $2.5 mil to Widow in False Elder Abuse Case

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded $2.5 million Wednesday to a widow who alleged her mentally impaired spouse was removed from her care based on lies motivated by greed.

Jurors deliberated nine days before finding in favor of Robin Rodriguez, who maintained that Robert Acciani, a former deputy city attorney in Torrance, used his influence with law enforcement to build a false case of financial and elder abuse against her.

The jury found a conspiracy existed to inflict emotional distress upon Robin Rodriguez and to commit trespass.

Robin Rodriguez wept as the verdict was announced in her favor. She later joined her attorneys to thank jurors in the hallway.

Her suit alleged that Acciani and his wife helped remove Rami Rodriguez from his Rolling Hills Estates home after he developed dementia, prompting Robin Rodriguez to wage a lengthy court battle to get him back, which she did some 15 months later in January 2005.

Rami Rodriguez was a millionaire real estate investor and nightclub owner. His widow filed her suit in June 2008 in Los Angeles Superior Court against the Accianis, the county and four members of the Sheriff's Department: Detectives Curtis Henderson and Christina Moreno-Anderson, Sgt. Barbara White and Deputy Kwan Chow. All denied any wrongdoing and also said Robert Acciani did not influence any aspect of their work in the Rodriguez case.

Chow was exonerated of all allegations against him.

"We all were just trying to do our jobs," Chow said outside the courtroom.

Henderson testified he did not believe Rami Rodriguez's removal from his home was motivated by greed and that he would have taken action against the Accianis if he thought they did anything illegal.

Henderson and White are now retired.

Rodriguez maintained the members of the Sheriff's Department pursued a meritless criminal investigation against her after she won her husband's return. He died in August 2006 at age 66.

Full Article and Source:
Jury Awards $2.5M to Widow in False Elder Abuse Case

Jury Decides Richard Morse is Incapacitated

After a rare trial, a Clark County jury has found a Vancouver man incapacitated and unable to make decisions about his money and medical care.

Jurors deliberated for more than nine hours Thursday and Friday before deciding shortly after 1 p.m. Friday that a third-party professional guardian should be appointed to make financial and medical decisions on behalf of Richard Morse, 72. The jury’s ruling that Morse is incapacitated means they found him unable to provide for his safety and health and manage his finances.

The case was rare in that it was apparently the first time that 12 Clark County citizens were asked to decide a guardianship case, rather than a judge.

At least 10 jurors were required to find Morse incapacitated in order to strip him of his rights to make his own decisions. Morse preserved some of his rights, but the 10-juror requirement was met on all the “big ones,” said Morse’s attorney, Jim Senescu of Dimitrov & Senescu.

Addressing Superior Court Judge John Wulle, Senescu said immediately after the ruling, “I will explain to Mr. Morse he has essentially lost the rights the jury has voted on.”

One juror sided with Morse on all counts, while another joined to make it a 10-2 margin on some decisions over Morse’s fitness.

Senescu after the ruling returned to a point he made in his closing argument that Morse, a veteran of the Vietnam War, lost rights he once fought to preserve. “That says it all,” he said.

The unusual case was brought by Vancouver Health & Rehabilitation Center, where Morse has been living for more than a year. The center’s attorney, Rachel Brooks, argued during the four-day trial that Morse had problems living on his own and managing his medicine and his health.

Concerning his finances, Morse has a $600,000 estate yet never has had a bank account, Brooks argued, and he’s not used to paying bills.

Senescu said that Morse would appeal.

Specifically, a third-party guardian now will decide when and where Morse gets medical care. Financially, Morse cannot enter into a contract, engage in real estate transactions or sue or be sued.

Morse retained the right to vote, make or revoke a will, marry or divorce, drive a vehicle and make decisions regarding social aspects of his life.

A hearing was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. April 27 to decide on a guardian for Morse.

“I don’t think this is the end,” Morse said. “Now it’s up to the Lord.

Full Article and Source:
Guardianship Jury Finds Man, 72, Unable to Care for Self

See Also:
Jury Receives Rare Guardianship Case

72 Year Old Man Takes Guardianship Case to Jury

72-Year-Old Man Takes Guardianship Case to Jury

The Vancouver (WA) Columbian reports: “As his attorney tells it, Richard Morse’s trial that starts today is about the balance between government and individual freedom. The 72-year-old man’s nursing home wants to become his legal guardian and take control of his $600,000 estate. Morse believes he’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

At issue is whether Morse is incapacitated and doesn’t have the ability to make decisions about his money and his care. Vancouver Health and Rehabilitation Center filed the petition for guardianship in May after Morse was staying there following hospitalization for infected leg wounds."

Full Article and Source:
Washington Man, 72, Takes Guardianship Case to Jury