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[W] Healthcare Centers of Texas3/7/2002
Healthcare Centers of Texas d/b/a The LaPorte Healthcare Center appeals a judgment in favor of Virginia Martine Rigby on the following grounds: (1) exemplary damages are barred or capped by chapter 41 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code; (2) the actual and exemplary damage awards were excessive; (3) the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the jury's verdict on the cause of action for negligence; and (4) because of cumulative errors of law, LaPorte is entitled to a new trial in the interest of fairness and justice. We modify the judgment to delete the assessment of punitive damages and, as modified, affirm.
Facts
This case arises out of an attempted sexual assault by Morris Jones on Jewel Underwood while both were residents at LaPorte Healthcare Center. Jones was admitted to Anahuac Healthcare Center in December 1995. Anahuac and LaPorte are nursing homes owned by Healthcare Centers of Texas, Inc. By October 1996, Jones had begun to exhibit inappropriate behavior at the Anahuac facility. Nurses at Anahuac testified that Jones repeatedly sat in the public rooms of the nursing home with his pants unzipped and his penis out in front of other residents. Anahuac nursing home kept cats and kittens at its facility because it was thought that pets would be therapeutic for the residents. Nurses observed Jones several times on the patio outside the dining room using the cats as masturbation aids.
After several incidents of inappropriate behavior with cats, Joanne Mathis, a nurse at Anahuac, observed Jones attempting to sexually assault a male resident in a closed restroom. The resident was blind, disoriented, and suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Jones was also seen wandering into residents' rooms and closing their doors. When confronted with this aberrant behavior, Jones became angry and denied any wrongdoing. The daughter of a staff member reported that Jones tried to follow her into a linen closet. She stated that he pulled on the doorknob to get into the closet with her.
The overall belief of the nurses and staff at Anahuac was that Jones was a threat to other residents and should not be in a nursing home. Although the nurses attempted to monitor Jones more closely than other residents, there was not enough staff to fully protect other patients. Several staff members testified that it was foreseeable he would sexually assault an elderly, disabled resident. The day Jones was discharged from Anahuac, Alicia Morgan, the director of nursing, wrote on his chart, "This resident is at risk for harming others." The nurses repeatedly informed Dr. Keith Rapp of Jones's aberrant behavior. Dr. Rapp was the medical director of both the Anahuac and LaPorte Healthcare Centers and the personal physician for Jones and Mrs. Underwood.
Dr. Kenneth Huff, a psychologist, was asked to evaluate and treat Jones for depression in April 1996. After two weeks, Dr. Rapp directed that Dr. Huff discontinue treatment, stating that Jones was no longer depressed. Dr. Huff later saw Jones on October 17, 1996, and diagnosed him as having major depression and sexual paraphilia, which Dr. Huff defined as, "sexual acting out." Dr. Huff's records contained observations of Jones's sexual impropriety with cats and expressed the concern that Jones may behave in a sexually inappropriate manner with low-functioning female residents. Dr. Huff concluded that Jones was "very dangerous" and needed to be placed in a more secure facility. Dr. Huff reported that a crisis atmosphere surrounding Jones had reached a crescendo by mid-October 1996. Dr. Huff reported that Jones's daughter wanted to get help for her father, but she could not bring him to her home because she c
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