Massachusetts' Highest Court Rejects Criminal Prosecution of Nursing Home Facility
by: Kelly Bagby, Sr. Attorney
from: AARP Foundation Litigation
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts indicted Life Care Centers of America, a nursing home corporation, based on its staff's alleged failure to act to protect a resident from known life-threatening harm. The indictment charged the corporation with involuntary manslaughter and neglect based on its collective knowledge and conduct of a number of the corporation's employees, without singling out any one employee for indictment.
This was the first time in Massachusetts that a corporation had been indicted criminally for manslaughter and neglect in a nursing home setting without the charging of an individual, and the question of whether a corporation can be held liable under such a theory was taken up by the state's highest court.
Unfortunately, the court declined to find a criminal prosecution proper against the corporation, ruling that the alleged criminal responsibility could not be supported under state law. Continued at link
Please continue to read complete article at link below:
http://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-02-2011/commonwealth_of_massachusetts_v_life_care_centers_of_america.html
Sunday, December 11, 2011
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