Rachal v. Peters

680 So. 2d 1280, 1996 WL 539247
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 25, 1996
Docket28,655-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 680 So. 2d 1280 (Rachal v. Peters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rachal v. Peters, 680 So. 2d 1280, 1996 WL 539247 (La. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

680 So.2d 1280 (1996)

Susan Peters RACHAL, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Max PETERS and Welcare International, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 28,655-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

September 25, 1996.

*1281 Sedric E. Banks, Monroe, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Hudson, Potts & Bernstein by Gordon L. James, Monroe, for Max Peters.

Pugh, Boudreaux & Shelton by James R. Shelton, Lafayette, for Welcare International, Inc.

Before MARVIN, BROWN and PRICE, JJ.

MARVIN, Chief Judge.

In this La.C.C. art. 2315.1 survival action for damages to her paternal grandmother, a deceased nursing home resident, brought by the granddaughter plaintiff against her paternal uncle and the nursing home operator, the granddaughter appeals a judgment dismissing her action on exceptions of no cause of action and no right of action filed by each of the defendants.

Defendant Max Peters, the decedent's son and plaintiff's uncle, is alleged to have placed his widowed mother in the nursing home against her wishes in June 1993 and failed to protect her from physical and mental harm by nursing home personnel before her death some seven months later. The nursing home operator, Welcare International, Inc., is alleged to have "acted in concert with Max Peters so as to wrongfully admit and retain [the grandmother] against her will and desire," causing physical and emotional injuries to the grandmother.

Plaintiff's paternal grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Louis Peters, Sr., had two sons, Max Peters, the uncle-defendant, and Louis Peters, Jr., plaintiff's father, who predeceased his parents in 1983. Louis Sr. died suddenly in June 1993. His widow, who was placed in a Ferriday, La., nursing home and interdicted by her son Max shortly after her husband's death, died in January 1994.

The issue is whether plaintiff, Mrs. Susan Peters Rachal, is a "surviving child" of the decedent who is eligible under the code to bring a survival action for the alleged injuries. No action was brought during her lifetime by the grandmother against either defendant. No action has been brought for wrongful death of the grandmother.

We affirm the sustaining of the peremptory exceptions against the survival action, but reverse the dismissal of the action to allow plaintiff an opportunity to amend. La.C.C.P. art. 934. We remand for that purpose.

PREFACE

In November 1993, a few months after admitting his mother to the Heritage Manor Nursing Home in Ferriday, Concordia Parish, Max Peters was appointed as her curator *1282 in interdiction proceedings brought by Peters in Tensas Parish, where Mrs. Peters was apparently domiciled. According to this record, the plaintiff, Mrs. Rachal, who resides in Ouachita Parish, did not oppose her uncle's appointment as curator. After her grandmother's death, Mrs. Rachal brought this action in Richland Parish, where Max Peters is allegedly domiciled.

ALLEGATIONS OF PETITION

We summarize the allegations of Mrs. Rachal's petition, which are taken as true for purposes of these exceptions: Both Mrs. Peters and her husband, Louis Peters, Sr., feared being placed in a nursing home and had amassed ample savings to cover the cost of being cared for at home in their later years, should either or both of them become care-dependent. When Mr. Peters died suddenly on June 23, 1993, Mrs. Peters was physically, mentally and financially capable of continuing to live at home. Her son, Max Peters, being "motivated by undue concern and efforts to further his personal convenience and/or conserve his inheritance to the prejudice and personal loss, damage and injury to his mother," admitted his mother to the nursing home against her will on or about June 26, 1993, only a few days after her husband's death, and without having obtained medical documentation of her need for nursing home care. The corporate operator of the nursing home, Welcare International, Inc., "acted in concert with Max Peters so as to wrongfully admit and retain [Mrs.] Peters in [the] nursing home against her will and desire."

The petition further alleges that while residing in the nursing home, Mrs. Peters was "wrongfully restrained ... and subjected to degradation, humiliation, ... loss of personal dignity and self-esteem, [and] extreme emotional and mental anguish"; that nursing home personnel "failed to attain and/or maintain the highest practical physical, mental and/or psychosocial well-being" of Mrs. Peters; failed "to reasonably meet [her] individual needs"; failed to provide "a reasonably safe environment conducive to [her] known mental and physical conditions"; and failed "to keep and maintain the proper documentation and records required by law relating to the care and well-being" of Mrs. Peters.

Max Peters, acting individually or in concert with Welcare, allegedly failed to meet his mother's personal needs relating to grooming, eye care, dental care and psychosocial care, and wrongfully denied her "such basic human liberties as the pursuit of the close family support and loving bonds which she had enjoyed throughout her life," even after he became legally obligated, as her curator, "to act for and on behalf of [Mrs.] Peters so as to reasonably [meet her] personal needs ... within the available means.... Max Peters negligently and/or wilfully breached such obligations[.]"

Finally, the petition alleges that Mrs. Peters "never wanted to be resuscitated while suffering a last illness"; that Max Peters knew, and "made certain" that nursing home personnel knew, his mother was not to be resuscitated during her last illness; that "all proper documents were executed in the ... nursing home so that the last wish and desire of [Mrs.] Peters would be honored"; and that in spite of these stated wishes, nursing home employees "wrongfully began efforts to resuscitate [Mrs.] Peters during her last illness, thus causing [her] suffering to continue another two days until her death[.]"

SURVIVAL ACTION BENEFICIARIES

The exceptions were sustained on the authority of La.C.C. art. 2315.1, which establishes these exclusive categories of beneficiaries who may bring a survival action for injuries suffered by another before his or her death:

"(1) The surviving spouse and child or children of the deceased, or either the spouse or the child or children;
(2) The surviving father and mother of the deceased, or either of them if he left no spouse or child surviving; and
(3) The surviving brothers and sisters of the deceased, or any of them, if he left no spouse, child or parent surviving." (Our emphasis.)

The same classes of beneficiaries may also bring a wrongful death action for the damages they sustain as a result of their relative's *1283 death. Art. 2315.2. Notwithstanding that Mrs. Rachal's petition asserts only the survival action, we shall discuss cases involving both actions because the codal beneficiaries in each action are essentially the same.

The provisions of Arts. 2315.1 and 2315.2, which were formerly contained in Art. 2315, have been consistently interpreted as excluding "grandchildren" from the first class of beneficiaries, even where, as here, the grandchild may be classified as an heir in the grandparent's succession proceeding through representation of a parent who predeceased the grandparent. See Hunt v. New Orleans Ry. & Light Co., 140 La. 524, 73 So. 667 (1916); Chatman v. Martin, 245 So.2d 423 (La.App. 2d Cir.1971); and Viau v. Batiste, 332 So.2d 512 (La.App. 4th Cir.1976), writ denied.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
680 So. 2d 1280, 1996 WL 539247, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rachal-v-peters-lactapp-1996.