Partner Mike Hostetter and Associate Mike Davis recently won summary judgment for a mental health care facility in Clayton County State Court in a case involving a death of a potential patient. The Plaintiffs, the Decedent’s parents, alleged the facility was negligent in allowing their adult son to walk away from the facility while he was waiting for an intake screening. The Decedent was killed the next day when he was struck by a car while walking in a road at night in another county. Davis argued in his summary judgment brief that the facility did not have a duty to continuously monitor the Decedent while he was at the facility. Instead, the ordinary duty of care required only the regular 15-minute checks on individuals waiting in the lobby for intake because the evidence showed the Decedent had no propensity to leave. Second, even if the facility breached its duty of care, it could not be responsible for the Decedent’s death as a matter of law because Plaintiffs could not show causation. Davis argued that the Decedent’s death was too remote in time and place to be attributed to his leaving the facility. Further, his death was caused by injuries sustained from a traffic collision, which was an intervening cause that the facility could not have foreseen. The Court agreed that the facility had shown that no evidence supported Plaintiffs’ claims on the breach and causation elements, and that the facility was entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law.

Pictured: Mike Hostetter(left), Mike Davis(right)