Sussex County Jury Awards $13 Million After Alzheimer's Patient Is Found Locked in Nursing Home Freezer
After trial: The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the verdict in 2006 and the trial court had denied a new trial or remittitur. The punitive damages claim was settled during trial for an amount that was not reported.
Won by Murphy & Landon, P.A..
Julie Bailey, a 60-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease, was found locked in the kitchen freezer room of the Lewes Convalescent Center hours after she was admitted in December 2002, and she died on January 21, 2003. A Sussex County jury awarded $13 million in compensatory damages to her estate, her husband and her three sons in March 2005. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in 2006.
What happened
On December 28, 2002, Julie Bailey, who was 60 and had Alzheimer's disease, arrived at the Lewes Convalescent Center in Lewes, Delaware, at about 11:00 a.m. Her disease had left her functioning at the intellectual level of a two-year-old. She had been in the facility's care for roughly four to five hours when staff discovered that she was missing from her room.
The staff searched the building and the surrounding area for about four and a half hours. They then found her locked inside a freezer room in the kitchen. According to the Delaware Supreme Court's account of the trial record, she was frozen to the floor of the freezer by her own urine. She had frostbite on her hands, feet and nose.
The treatment for those injuries added to her suffering. The record showed that she was not given pain medication before her frostbite treatments. Julie Bailey developed a pulmonary embolism and died on January 21, 2003, a little more than three weeks after she was admitted.
Her husband, Anthony Bailey, who served as administrator of her estate, and her three sons sued Lewes Convalescent Center and Beebe Medical Center in Delaware Superior Court, Sussex County, under Delaware's medical negligence and wrongful death laws. The case went to a jury from March 9 to March 16, 2005. Chase T. Brockstedt, then with Murphy Spadaro & Landon (now Murphy & Landon), appeared for the family on appeal, according to the Supreme Court's counsel listing.
The jury returned compensatory verdicts totaling $13 million: $4 million to Julie Bailey's estate, $3 million to her husband, and $2 million to each of her three sons. The family's claim for punitive damages was settled on March 15, 2005, while the trial was under way. The amount of that settlement has not been reported.
The defendants moved for a new trial or a reduced award, and the trial judge denied the motion. They appealed, challenging the refusal to separate the damages claims for trial, the decision to let family members recover for their own emotional distress, and a jury instruction. In 2006, the Delaware Supreme Court rejected all three arguments and affirmed the judgment in Beebe Medical Center, Inc. v. Bailey, 913 A.2d 543.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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