George Houser(Ellison Langford, RN-T)
Just minutes after the jury announced the final verdict, George D. Houser was taken out of the courtroom in handcuffs to serve a 48-hour contempt of court order that had been issued Tuesday.
Houser was sued by Loretta Terhune, who claims her father, Morris Ellison, 84, died in Moran Lake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center within six months of entering the facility.
Terhune’s attorney, Mike Prieto, said he was happy and relieved by the jury’s verdict. Houser filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, but Prieto is still hopeful his client will receive the money.
“Money was never really the issue. For our client it was all about accountability,” Prieto said.
Terhune told the jury Tuesday that her father was all the family she had, and the two of them had a close relationship ever since he adopted her when she was just a year old.
“We loved to eat and play cards together. He spoiled me. We never went one day without talking,” Terhune said.
Ellison was placed in Moran Lake after being treated for a blood clot in his leg. Terhune said he was never supposed to be there more than a few months.
According to testimony by a medical expert, when Ellison died he was dehydrated, malnourished and his hip had been broken for 10 days.
Christie Fuqua, former director of nursing for Moran Lake, testified that at the time the facility ran low on food supplies, didn’t have hot water and patients slept in broken beds next to walls smeared with fecal matter.
Fuqua also testified that often staff paychecks would bounce, and it became chaotic on payday when staff members left the facility in a mad dash to get checks cashed before they could be declined. Fuqua cried on the stand as she described what it felt like when she heard that the patients had been removed from the facility after it was ordered to be closed in 2007.
“Putting these patients in a different environment is like taking a 3-year-old child and placing them in a new home. It was heart-breaking,” Fuqua said.
The civil trial, which began Monday, was delayed two days after Houser declared bankruptcy Tuesday and attorneys for the plaintiff requested an emergency bankruptcy hearing in Atlanta on Thursday so the trial could continue.
The trial was rife with delays, as Judge Bryant
Durham had to repeatedly admonish Houser for not following court procedures as he attempted to defend himself.
Houser was found in contempt and ordered to pay $200 and serve 48 hours in the Floyd County Jail following Friday’s verdict.
Houser admitted liability in court Friday but said the case was about damages.
Houser said that because of Ellison’s age his, projected income would be low, and, while Ellison did suffer from an untreated broken hip that the plaintiff said contributed to his death, Houser contends the break happened 10 days before the man died.
“I have a bad back, and when I am suffering I wish I was dying,” Houser said. “However great the pain might have been, it was just a few days.”
Steve Lowry, an attorney assisting the lead plaintiff’s attorney in the case, said Houser’s argument that Ellison was old and had a limited lifespan does not negate the fact that the plaintiff has suffered from the loss of her father.
“We are not the sum of what we earn,” Lowry said. “Our value is the time we spend with our family, playing cards, going out to dinner. We can not judge (Ellison) based on what his earning potential was.”
The jury found that Houser’s actions caused harm to Ellison. The jury also ruled that Houser violated fair business practices and misused funds intended for patient care.
It took just two hours for the jury to reach the verdict, and Terhune was awarded more than $37 million in punitive damages, pain and suffering and medical expense recovery.
Houser and his wife, Rhonda Houser, are both facing federal criminal charges after being accused of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare out of $30 million. He is scheduled for a pretrial hearing in federal court in Rome on Tuesday.
Houser’s three nursing homes, which also included Mount Berry Nursing Home and another in Brunswick, were closed in 2007 after the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put Forum Medical Group on notice that it would no longer pay for care unless drastic improvements were made.
Click here to see a tally of the amount awarded by the jury.
My mother lived in Sunbridge Newport from mid 2002 through December 2003, which included numerous trips to acute care hospitals for treatment SUN was negligent for. Her condition gradually declined after repeated urinary tract infections, fevers, respiratory infections, pneumonia, strokes, as well as MRSA. Most of which were caused from Sun’s lack of staffing, broken equipment and simple neglect. In March, 2003, while sitting alone in her wheelchair in the Dining Room without staff present, she fell head first onto the floor, as witnessed by other residents. Her CNA, Rey Esteban, found her when he walked out of the lunch room hearing a loud thud. She suffered a hematoma on her forehead that the facility failed to report to the Dept of Health as required by law. She had been admitted in 2002 as a high risk for falls, yet didn’t have a lap buddy nor anyone watching her. Serious violations. I later found that even with double pneumonia Sun forced Evelyn Calvert up and dressed by 5:30am, I discovered on a surprise visit, as she was then to be made to sit in the hallway to wait hrs for the dining room doors to open, because Sun understaffed and simply put, 5-7 CNAs that arrive at 7am cannot dress 59 patients in one hour. I informed Sun’s Medical Director who interceded stating no sick patients were ever to be awakened to sit up at 5:30am for breakfast. Commonplace: Thirsty? Back in an hour; Need bathroom? Sorry there is no help to walk you to the bathroom so we use diapers here; Hungry? great food; You need a Dr? We’re short on staff again, let’s call 911 and transfer you to the local acute care hospital; Fever? Sorry our thermometers broke (documented by DHS) Hot? Our HVAC was condemned by State; Cold? HVAC broke; Can’t breathe? No Ventilation? Did I mention the HVAC is condemned? By the way our oxygen tank ran out -not enough staff to monitor oxygen tanks; Looks like you had a stroke! OH, our b/p monitors broke, sorry you’ll never swallow again; AND now you contracted MRSA from us? So sorry to tell you this but now you will die. Sure enough seven months later our mom was dead from this callous behavior. But not before complete renal failure and tube feeding which she spent the majority of her final months in an acute care hospital.
I’d written to SUN’s management as early as May 15, 2003, warning their lack of staffing was harming patients. On this day the agency in charge of equipment in hospitals, the Office of Statewide Health Facilities Planning & Development, actually shut off and condemned their HVAC system to patient rooms, sealing all the vents due to the “filth”. Sun never repaired or replaced this equipment, ever. Yet their 2001 Calif state injunction stated clearly they were not to have broken HVAC systems or under staff again. Why didn’t the Assistant Attorney General Claude Vanerdwold respond to Dolores Otting and my pleas for help? Why didn’t Sun respond to their Medical Director, Dr Stoney’s pleas for help? C O R R U P T I O N!
The CEO cheated me out of compensation for wrongful death and her pain & suffering after I made posters calling Sun a slumlord -which Judge Greogry W. Jones of Harbor Court agreed with. Citing freedom of speech -she proved he killed her mother, certainly she can state it. I sued my former late corrupt attorney, Daniel Leipold, for the malpractice of lying to me about the law -he died 2 weeks later. I won that case against his estate in 2008. He conspired with the CEO of Sun to save them from the same fate Skilled Healthcare is now faced with -the loss of a billion dollar revenue which made a few corporate clowns rich.
Sad commentary on life in America.
Deb Calvert, Newport Beach, California
He even used his minority status to get into Harvard Law School where he apparently failed to pay attention while enrolled there. I am pretty sure Harvard Law School would have told George that its never a good idea to refer to white jurors as "crackers". That is what got him 48 hours in jail for contempt. And when the fool gets out of jail Monday, he's got some explaining to do to federal Judge Murphy on Tuesday about why he signed a paupers affidavit to get free legal council in his federal fraud case, while bragging in his civil trial that he was worth $10-$50 million and was land rich but money poor.
George Houser is the poster child for everything that is bad about affirmative action.(Affirmative actions has some good qualities) He has spent 30 years scamming the taxpayers and banks and it looks like his Harvard educated dumbass is going to spend his retirement days in a federal prison. Your game is up George, and it's time to pay the piper.
The punitive damages awarded in this case are roughly eleven times the amount of the compensatory damages. Many states don't allow punitive damages to exceed three times the amount of compensatory damages.
However, I don't see this one being appealed... The defendant already owes the feds $30,000,000 and he is in bankruptcy. Can't get blood from a turnip!
Outstanding!.... I can't wait to hear where they are going to donate the settlement. $37 million could do a lot of good in the community.