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Mealey's Elder Law

April 12, 2023
Deal For Payment Up To $20.6M Reported In Suit Against SAG-AFTRA Health Fund

LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs who sued the SAG-AFTRA Health Fund and related defendants under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act over benefit cuts and a merger asked a California federal court for preliminary approval of a class settlement involving a $15 million fund, additional payments totaling up to $5.6 million and nonmonetary relief.
April 12, 2023
United States Seeks To Participate In SCOTUS Arguments Over Condo Seizure

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States filed a motion in the U.S. Supreme Court for leave to participate in the April 26 oral arguments in a putative class lawsuit by an elderly woman who alleges compensable taking and violation of the excessive fines clause in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution after her condominium was seized by a Minnesota county and sold for $40,000 to satisfy a $15,000 tax debt.
April 10, 2023
Delaware High Court Dismisses Attorney Fee Appeal In Medicare Plan Dispute

DOVER, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by the Delaware State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC) from a state court order denying Delaware state retirees’ motion for attorney fees in their suit against SEBC over its requirement that retirees switch from Medicare supplemental plans to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, finding that the “appeal should be dismissed as interlocutory.”
April 06, 2023
Panel Affirms Title Transfer To Son, Findings Of No Elder Abuse, Undue Influence

SAN FRANCISCO — A California appellate court affirmed a lower court’s judgment in favor of a woman’s son and daughter-in-law in the woman’s elder abuse and breach of contract suit against them after the woman and her now-deceased husband transferred title of their home to their son, finding that the lower court ruled correctly in finding, in part, that the woman “did not overcome the presumption that the holder of legal title holds the full beneficial title to a property.”
April 06, 2023
Panel Affirms Judgment Appointing Sister As Guardian As Barred By Res Judicata

AKRON, Ohio — An Ohio appellate court affirmed a lower court’s judgment denying a woman’s motion to terminate the appointment of her sister as guardian for their mother, finding that the guardianship challenge is barred by res judicata, that the existing power of attorney did not support terminating the guardianship and that the guardianship was not in violation of the mother’s right to liberty under the Ohio Constitution.
April 05, 2023
Justice Thomas Rejects Stay Of 11th Circuit Mandate In Care Home Fraud Case

WASHINGTON, D.C.— U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on April 4 denied an application to stay the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ mandate pending a decision on a man’s upcoming petition for a writ of certiorari of the 11th Circuit’s ruling that a district court did not err in admitting expert opinion testimony against the man convicted for his role in a $37 million health care fraud scheme that began in 1998 and involved bribing physicians to have patients entered into a network of assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities that he owned.
April 05, 2023
Professional Services Exclusion Bars Coverage; Insurer Owed $2M Reimbursement

PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a commercial general liability insurance policy’s professional services exclusion bars coverage for the insured’s liability in an underlying lawsuit alleging negligence, loss of consortium, financial elder abuse and fraud and that the insurer is entitled to the reimbursement of the $2 million it paid to settle the underlying lawsuit.
April 03, 2023
Dismissal Denied In FCA Suit Against Nursing Homes With Claims ‘Adequately Pled’

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge on March 31 denied nursing home defendants’ dismissal motion in the U.S. government’s suit against them asserting common-law claims of payment by mistake and unjust enrichment and a False Claims Act (FCA) claim related to alleged “grossly substandard nursing home services to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries,” finding that the allegations for common-law claims “are adequately pled” and the FCA claim rises “to the level of gross-negligence necessary to deem [the nursing homes’] services worthless.”
April 03, 2023
Panel Rules On Grandparent Visitation, Finds Order ‘Void For Lack Of Jurisdiction’

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama appellate court granted in part custodial paternal grandparents’ second mandamus petition challenging a juvenile court’s jurisdiction, finding that because the juvenile court lacked jurisdiction “over the maternal grandmother’s visitation action,” it could not address the grandparents’ dismissal motion regarding that visitation order, but because the paternal grandparents failed to show another county court’s jurisdiction over the visitation action, the juvenile court must set aside its orders and transfer the action back to its related county trial court.
March 31, 2023
Federal Judge Found That POA Not Sufficient To Bring ERISA Suit Against Insurer

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on March 30 granted Cigna’s motion to dismiss an ERISA suit filed against it by a physician acting as an agent for his patient pursuant to a power of attorney (POA), finding that “without a valid assignment of Patient’s claim, he lacks a cause of action under ERISA Section 1132(a)(1)(B).”
March 31, 2023
Panel: Bond Doesn’t ‘Rise’ To Level To Overrule Mother For Grandparent Visitation

BOSTON — A Massachusetts appellate court affirmed a family court’s dismissal of a grandmother’s petition for grandparent visitation with her grandchildren, finding that “[t]he relationship she describes, while unquestionably a meaningful one, does not rise to the level required to override the mother's constitutional rights.”
March 30, 2023
County To U.S. High Court: Condo Owner Lacks Standing To Sue Over Seizure

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An elderly woman who brought a putative class complaint after her condominium was seized by a Minnesota county and sold for $40,000 to satisfy a $15,000 tax debt lacks standing to sue, fails to allege compensable taking and fails to state a claim under the excessive fines clause in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the county and county’s auditor-treasurer argue in their respondent brief filed March 29 in the U.S. Supreme Court.
March 30, 2023
Panel Affirms Attorney Fee Reduction In Dispute Over $5M Estate’s ‘False’ Will

TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington appellate court affirmed a lower court’s award of reduced attorney fees from those requested by a decedent’s sister in a will dispute over her brother’s $5 million estate, finding that “[b]ecause the trial court relied on proper factors that it deemed relevant for a reduction in fees,” it “did not abuse its discretion.”
March 29, 2023
No Remand In COVID Death Suit Against Care Home Absent Joinder-Ending Diversity

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge denied a remand motion in a family’s COVID-19-related wrongful death suit against a senior living facility, finding that because Federal Rules of Civil Procedure factors “weigh against joinder” of the care home manager, “remand is not mandatory.”
March 29, 2023
Convicted Defendants Must Pay $113.4M In FCA Violation Suit Over Medicare Claims

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — After a Texas federal judge ordered two convicted defendants to pay $113,467,410 to the U.S. government for violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) in connection with a Medicare “health care fraud conspiracy,” the judge on March 28 issued an order requiring the government and the convicted defendants to file with the court “appropriate dismissal documents.”
March 24, 2023
UnitedHealthcare Says State Laws Regulating MA Plan ‘Standards’ Are Preempted

SAN FRANCISCO — A California Medicare Advantage (MA) provider filed a supplemental brief with the California Supreme Court in a negligence, elder abuse and wrongful death suit filed against it, contending that state laws purporting to regulate MA plans are preempted as confirmed by the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Medicaid & Medicare Advantage Products Association of Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Emanuelli Hernández, which found, in part, that the legislative history of the Medicare Advantage Act’s preemption clause shows the intent to expand preemption.
March 24, 2023
Motion To Amend Class Granted In Care Home Suit Alleging ‘Profit-Driven Staffing’

BECKLEY, W.Va. — A West Virginia federal judge granted a motion to file a second amended complaint in a putative class action filed against a nursing home by representatives of its residents alleging that the nursing home defrauded residents in violation of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (WVCCPA) by not basing staffing requirements on residents’ needs rather than corporate profit.
March 20, 2023
Dismissal Granted In Elder Abuse Suit Against Bank Over $70,000 In Wire Fraud

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted JPMorgan Chase Bank’s motion to dismiss with prejudice the second amended complaint against it in a financial elder abuse and negligence suit filed by a couple who were victims of wire fraud, finding that the couple failed to show that the bank “owed them a legal duty of care” or had actual knowledge of the fraud.
March 17, 2023
Panel Affirms Judgment Against Senior In Suit For Deceptive Investment Scheme

SAN DIEGO — A California appellate panel on March 16 affirmed a trial court’s entry of judgment after trial rejecting a senior citizen’s claims that a businessman violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and engaged in financial elder abuse by charging her $15,000 to provide her with contacts to fund her business venture who never provided her with the promised loan.
March 16, 2023
Michigan Panel Dismisses As Moot Son’s Appeals Of Order Granting Payment To GAL

DETROIT — A Michigan appellate court dismissed as moot a son’s consolidated appeals of a probate court’s order granting the payment of fees to a court-appointed guardian ad litem (GAL) for his father, finding that because the probate court terminated the son’s conservatorship of his father, the appeals are moot.
March 15, 2023
Judgment Granted For Government In Negligence Suit Over Veteran’s Cancer Death

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Kentucky federal judge granted the U.S. government’s motion for summary judgment in a medical negligence suit filed against it by the widow of a veteran alleging that the Veterans Affairs (VA) facility where her husband was treated was negligent because it failed to screen for lung cancer using low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), finding that the widow’s expert witness failed to show that LDCT screening was the required standard of care.
March 15, 2023
Texas Panel Affirms Order Admitting Will To Probate In Signature Validity Dispute

HOUSTON — A Texas appellate court on March 14 affirmed a probate court’s order admitting a will to probate, finding that the probate court’s evidence supports rejecting the decedent’s granddaughter’s assertion that the will was invalid due to purported forged signatures.
March 14, 2023
CVS’s Dismissal Motion Denied In FCA Claim Over Medicare ‘Anti-Competitive Scheme’

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge denied in part CVS and its related entities’ motion to dismiss a qui tam suit against them asserting that they “engaged in an anti-competitive scheme to block Medicare Part D recipients from accessing less expensive drugs” in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA), finding that the complaint suffices to show “the existence of an agreement to violate the FCA.”
March 14, 2023
Split Panel Dismisses Appeal, Says Judgment Granting Grandparent Visitation Is Void

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A split Alabama appellate court dismissed a father’s appeal of a juvenile court’s consolidated judgments granting visitation to maternal grandparents, vesting custody with the father but determining the child dependent as to the father, finding that the evidence fails to show that the child should remain dependent as to the father and that because the grandparents failed “to invoke the juvenile court's subject-matter jurisdiction” under Alabama law, the judgment granting visitation is void.
March 13, 2023
U.S. Files Amicus Brief In High Court Case Over Seizure Of Elderly Woman’s Condo

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An elderly woman who brought a putative class complaint after her condominium was seized by a Minnesota county and sold for $40,000 to satisfy a $15,000 tax debt stated a claim for compensable taking; however, the county’s actions did not constitute a fine subject to the excessive fines clause in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the United States argues in an amicus curiae brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of neither side.