Jury Finds Hospital Not Liable for Deporting Patient Against His Will

[WSJ_law_blog]

Here’s a ruling that’s sure to ignite passions on both sides of the talk-radio dial. A jury in Stuart, Fla., on Monday decided that the Martin Memorial Medical Center would not be held legally liable for damages resulting from a decision to charter a plane and repatriate a brain-injured Guatemalan patient against the will of his guardian. Click here for the NYT article; here for the AP story.

The lawsuit, filed by the cousin of 37-year-old Luis Jimenez, sought nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of Jimenez’s care in Guatemala. It also asked for damages from the hospital for “unlawfully detaining” him and punitive damages.

The backstory, which comes mostly courtesy of the AP, is interesting. In 2000, a drunk driver smashed into a van in which Jimenez was riding. Jiminez was rendered a paraplegic with the cognitive ability of a fourth grader.

Under federal law, hospitals that receive Medicare reimbursements are required to provide emergency care to all patients and must provide an acceptable discharge plan once the patient is stabilized. But because of his immigration status and lack of insurance, no other facility in the United States would provide long-term care to Jimenez.

Jimenez spent almost three years at Martin Memorial before the hospital, backed by a letter from the Guatemalan government, got a Florida judge to sign off on the transfer to a facility in that country.

Jimenez’s cousin appealed the order. But shortly thereafter, without telling Jimenez’s family, Martin Memorial put Jimenez on a $30,000 charter flight home early on July 10, 2003.

The cousin eventually won his appeal on the grounds that a state judge doesn’t have the power to decide immigration cases. But by then, it was too late. Jimenez had been released from the Guatemalan hospital and was living with his 73-year-old mother in a one-room home in the mountainous state of Huehuetenango.

The judge had instructed the jury late last week that, because of a Florida appeals court decision, it was already “a matter of law” that the patient, Luis Alberto Jiménez, had been unlawfully detained and deprived of his liberty. But the jury found that Martin Memorial did not commit false imprisonment and was not liable for damages.

In a statement, the hospital applauded the jury’s decision. But at the same time, the hospital’s president and chief executive, Mark Robitaille, criticized “our political leadership” for failing to address the challenges facing hospitals that provide uncompensated health care to illegal immigrants.

One of the cousin’s lawyers, Jack Hill, said he was disappointed.

“While we respect the jury’s verdict,” Mr. Hill said, “we certainly feel that they should have acknowledged the wrongfulness of Martin Memorial’s conduct.”