Court: Caregivers can't sue Alzheimer's patients
National News
People with Alzheimer's disease are not liable for injuries they may cause their paid in-home caregivers, California's highest court ruled Monday in a case involving a home health aide who was hurt while trying to restrain a client.
The California Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that people hired to work with Alzheimer's patients should know the disease commonly causes physical aggression and agitation in its later stages. The court majority concluded it would therefore be inappropriate to allow caregivers who get hurt managing a combative client to sue their employers.
"It is a settled principle that those hired to manage a hazardous condition may not sue their clients for injuries caused by the very risks they were retained to confront," Justice Carole Corrigan wrote for the majority.
The law in California and many other states already establishes that caregivers in institutional settings such as hospitals and nursing homes may not seek damages from Alzheimer's patients who injure them. To have a different standard for caregivers working in private homes would give families a financial incentive to put relatives with Alzheimer's into nursing homes, Corrigan said.
Related listings
-
Court hearing gay marriage arguments from 4 states
National News 08/06/2014A federal appeals court was set to hear arguments Wednesday in six gay marriage fights from four states — Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee - in the biggest such session on the issue so far. Three judges of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ...
-
German court receives suit against EU bank union
National News 07/29/2014A group of German professors has filed a complaint to the country's highest court against the European Union's plans to create a so-called banking union, a central part of the effort to make the continent's financial system more resilient. The Federa...
-
Brown appoints legal affairs aide to appeals court
National News 07/29/2014Gov. Jerry Brown has named a senior aide to become an associate justice on the Sacramento-based Third District Court of Appeal. Brown announced the appointment of Jonathan Renner on Friday. The 44-year-old Democrat from Sacramento has been Brown's le...