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Plaintiff elderly female resident brought a personal injury complaint arising out of an alleged sexual assault on her at defendant nursing home facility. The complaint contained a total of 50 counts against the facility and other defendants, and defendants filed a motion to strike 35 of those counts.
The resident sued defendants for claims arising from an alleged sexual assault at the defendant nursing facility. Fifty counts, sounding in negligence and recklessness, were alleged. Defendants filed a motion to strike 35 of those counts and plaintiff agreed to dismiss 30 of the counts. The remaining counts asserted causes of action in recklessness and sought punitive and/or double or treble damages. Defendants claimed the counts were legally insufficient because the negligence claims were simply reasserted as reckless conduct. The court found that to allege reckless conduct, the resident needed to assert conduct that amounted to more than aggravated negligence in mere failure to act, lack of skill, or inattention. Since the bulk of the disputed counts alleged such conduct, they constituted claims for gross negligence rather than recklessness and were subject to dismissal. The only count that survived alleged that defendants knew about a male patient's sexual proclivities from his activities with the resident or other patients prior to the assault, yet took no action to prevent any subsequent assaults. Such conduct could be outrageous, egregious, and reckless.
The court granted the motion to strike 30 of the counts by agreement of the parties. The court denied the motion to strike a portion of one count that dealt with defendants' failure to prevent assaults by a male patient after they allegedly knew of his sexual proclivities. The court granted the motion to strike the remaining challenged counts. The court denied the motion to strike the prayer of relief for double or treble damages.
At Maya Murphy, P.C., our personal injury attorneys are dedicated to achieving the best results for individuals and their family members and loved ones whose daily lives have been disrupted by injury, whether caused by a motor vehicle or pedestrian accident, a slip and fall, medical malpractice, a defective product, or otherwise. Our attorneys are not afraid to aggressively pursue and litigate cases and have extensive experience litigating personal injury matters in both state and federal courts, and always with regard to the unique circumstances of our client and the injury he or she has sustained.
Source: Doe v. Advisors Healthcare Group, 2004 Conn. Super. LEXIS 237 (Jan. 27,2004)
