Gerhart v. Cathedral Village

25 Pa. D. & C.3d 430, 1982 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 239
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedSeptember 7, 1982
Docketno. 7282
StatusPublished

This text of 25 Pa. D. & C.3d 430 (Gerhart v. Cathedral Village) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gerhart v. Cathedral Village, 25 Pa. D. & C.3d 430, 1982 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 239 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1982).

Opinion

SMITH, Jr., J.

Defendant is a corporation conducting a life-care retirement community. Plaintiff is a 72 year old widow who became a resident of the facility operated by defendant on March 1,1982. On May 26,1982, defendant gave plaintiff written notice of termination of her residence, effective that day. This was in exercise of the purported privilege reserved to defendant under a certain clause of the formal printed agreement executed by the parties before plaintiff entered upon residence. Under this clause, defendant was at liberty to exclude her from the facility, return the considerable sum paid by her at execution of the contract, and abrogate the contract entirely at any time within three months after plaintiffs first taking up residence. By this complaint in equity plaintiff seeks to have defendant preliminarily and eventually permanently enjoined from so excluding her. A temporary restraining order (injunction granted without notice) obtained on complaint and affidavits came before the court for hearing under Pa.R.C.P. 1531(d), presenting the question whether the temporary injunction should be dissolved, continued, or modified.

The contract in question provided that defendant furnish plaintiff with living quarters for her exclu[432]*432sive occupancy, certain furnishings, meal service in a common dining room, and general medical, surgical, hospital, and nursing care as needed, until her death. Defendant, however, was expressly relieved of the cost of medical or surgical care for any specifically expected reason disclosed by medical examination, and in plaintiffs case, there appears in the contract the stated exception “Depression.” This exception is initialed by plaintiff. The reason for this exclusion is made plain by another provision of the contract, Par. 3M, stating that Cathedral Village is not designed for the treatment of mental illness of any form.

The contract further provides that plaintiff pay and she had paid, the sum of $43,500 at execution of the agreement, and a monthly service charge of $894, her payment of which was also current when defendant gave her notice to surrender possession of her living quarters and withdraw from the facility.

The clause of the contract under which defendant took this action is as follows (Par. 6B):

“WITHIN THREE MONTHS AFTER OCCUPANCY (Probationary Period) — At any time within the probationary period, Resident may terminate this Agreement provided that, he (1) delivers written personally signed notice of termination to Community, and (2) surrenders the living accommodation. Within said three months period, Community may terminate this Agreement by written notice to Resident.”

Powerful motivations and persuasive considerations underline the respective positions of both parties. Plaintiff was left a widow in 1980, by the very sudden death of her husband from a massive [433]*433heart attack suffered while their house was on fire. The older of two sons of the marriage is a clergyman living in New Jersey, and some degree of estrangement obtains between him and plaintiff, a reflection of tensions between plaintiff and his wife’s family. The younger son, age 25 and unmarried, is not law-abiding and is disclosed by testimony at hearing as being of stormy, troublesome disposition. Plaintiff freely confessed to defendant, on being first attracted to the idea of becoming one of its residents, that she felt lonely and depressed, understandably so from the foregoing account of her family situation, and her own physician professionally made that diagnosis. She came to look forward to living at defendant’s facility, to life with fellow-residents, and to participation in their various activities as a measure of relief from both her loneliness and her depression. In fact, she has become a regular member of the choir, and is a regular volunteer aide and visitor at the medical infirmary of the facility.

Plaintiff made her initial deposit of $1,000 to accompany her application for residency in August, 1981, was told her application had been approved, and from then until early 1982, waited to be reached on the waiting list of applicants. In the first few days of January, 1982 word came from defendant that she was third on that list and should be taking steps to put her home on the real estate market. This she did, and further disposed of all her household good and furnishings other than those she planned to take with her to Cathedral Village. She executed the life-care contract tendered her by defendant under date of January 26, 1982, and simultaneously paid defendant the balance, above her original $1,000 deposit, of the $43,500 consid[434]*434eration fixed in defendant’s scale for the living unit assigned her and the services or other accommodations to be provided.

Defendant’s notice to plaintiff of abrogation of their agreement, nevertheless, can scarcely be characterized as sheerly arbitrary. Mrs. Pritchard, Enrollment Coordinator of defendant, testified that on May 19th plaintiff told her she had been advised by her own lawyer to take the precaution for her own protection of reporting to defendant some conduct of her younger son, David.The first series of events she reported was that she learned David had let himself into her empty house with his own key and the real estate man had found the thermostat set at 90 degrees and the oven turned on with no one at home. This prompted her to have the locks changed on the house, but while the locksmith was engaged in this work, David appeared on the scene, armed with a machete and threatened the locksmith. The locksmith told the realtor, the realtor called the police, and the police took David away. David has a criminal record, a conviction of arson and is serving a sentence of probation.

The second incident reported by plaintiff to Mrs. Pritchard was that within a few days previous David had visited her alone in her apartment, and there upbraided her bitterly for putting the house on the sales market, accusing her of “taking the roof from over his head.” As the climax of this tirade he seized her by the shoulders and shook her to the point of her head banging against the wall.

Mrs. Pritchard testified that plaintiffs lawyer in conversation with her has described David as having a drug problem and expressed the opinion that David could be dangerous. Further testimony puts David presently in North Carolina, living with an aunt and uncle, and seeking employment there.

[435]*435Alarm over such threats to plaintiffs safety and to the peace and order of its facility caused defendant, for several days, at additional expense in the form of overtime pay, to assign certain of its guard personnel to evening hour surveillance of the environs of plaintiffs living quarters. Thinking it advisable also to have plaintiff lodging elsewhere for a few days, defendant approached both the clergyman son of plaintiff and one of her Mends to attempt such arrangements, only to have each decline on the same grounds, fear of reprisal from David. The outcome was that at defendant’s request plaintiff made a brief sojourn at Quakertown Community Hospital. There, plaintiff testified a neuropsychiatrist, one Dr. Bloom, told her she had the alternative of undergoing psychiatric treatment or leaving Cathedral Village. Defendant disowns any such opinion on Dr. Bloom’s part, or employing the doctor to give it. From its own staff physician, Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
25 Pa. D. & C.3d 430, 1982 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 239, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gerhart-v-cathedral-village-pactcomplphilad-1982.