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Bassford Remele is a full service litigation firm located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1882, the firm represents local, national and international clients in all areas of civil litigation and dispute resolution.
Case Law Update
During the week of August 10, 2007, the Minnesota appellate courts released an opinion on the following topic that may be of interest to our clients:
HEALTHCARE – MINNESOTA VULNERABLE ADULTS ACT
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The Minnesota Vulnerable Adults Act mandates reporting of a caregiver’s conduct that is not an accident or therapeutic conduct which produces, or could reasonably be expected to produce, physical pain or injury or emotional distress in a reasonable person.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld an administrative law judge’s decision to disqualify appellant caregiver from having direct contact with vulnerable adults after the caregiver directed profane language to adults in her care.
The caregiver challenged the administrative law judge’s application of the Act’s definition of “abuse as maltreatment”:
Conduct which is not an accident or therapeutic conduct…which produces or could reasonably be expected to produce physical pain or injury or emotional distress including, but not limited to the following…
Minn. Stat. § 626.5572, subd. 2(b)(2) (2004).
According to the caregiver, her conduct did not meet this definition because the vulnerable adults could not understand the profanities she said to them. Thus, the caregiver argued, the State could not show that her conduct reasonably caused emotional distress in the vulnerable adults.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals held that the statute was ambiguous because it did not apply any standard for initial determination of whether such conduct constitutes “abuse as maltreatment.” Thus, the Court turned to the legislative intent in adopting the Act.
The Act, as interpreted by appellant, would mean that the more vulnerable an adult, the more poorly his caregiver could treat him. This result would be absurd. The legislature did not intend such a result, as the stated purpose of the Act is to protect vulnerable adults and provide them with safe environments in which to live. The caregiver’s proposed result would have the opposite effect. For these reasons, the Act contains an objective “reasonable person” standard to be applied in determining whether a caregiver’s conduct produces, or could reasonably be expected to produce, physical pain or injury or emotional distress in a vulnerable adult.
In re Maltreatment, Disqualification of Kleven, Minnesota Court of Appeals No. A6-1799, August 7, 2007.
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C. Lundberg, C. Morris, K. Putney, R.A. Williams, |
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