News & Events

Dale L. Friedman, a partner in the firm’s Hollywood Office, and Diane H. Tutt, an appellate partner in the firm’s Hollywood Office, recently obtained summary judgment in a wrongful death case brought by the personal representative (mother) of an intellectually disabled adult who was residing in a group home and was struck and killed by a vehicle as he walked across a roadway to get a snack.  The Plaintiff was represented by a very well respected personal injury law firm in Palm Beach. 

The decedent was never ruled incompetent and was in a non-lock down group home at the request of his mother.  His mother, as personal representative, sued the group home for negligence related to her son’s care and supervision, and sued our client, a Medicaid waiver support coordinator, who was responsible for obtaining approval for supports and services for the decedent from the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The allegations against our client were that the support coordinator failed to ensure that the decedent obtained a behavioral assessment which the Plaintiff claimed could have resulted in the decedent not leaving the group home at night and not walking across a busy roadway. 

The court ruled that because our client had not been the support coordinator for at least a year before the accident, it did not have a duty of care, pursuant to case law holding that a defendant has a duty of care only if the defendant has the ability to “control the risk.”  The court also ruled that, even if there was a duty, there was no breach by our client.