Opinion ID: 1773692
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Omnibus Nursing Home Act Provides a Private Right of Action to Private Nursing Home Residents and Employees.

Text: This Court has previously recognized that the Act, [i]s an exercise of the police power of the state, directed to the protection of the health, safety, and welfare of a large and increasing nursing home population. Stiffelman v. Abrams, 655 S.W.2d 522, 528 (Mo. banc 1983). One of the key purposes of the Act is to provide protection to those individuals who are unlikely, or unable, to protect themselves. As Stiffelman stated: The obvious purpose of this statute is to protect the health and safety of citizens who are unable fully to take care of themselves, particularly the more elderly persons, who, from necessity or choice, spend their later years in homes of the type which the statute would license or regulate[.] ... Such an enactment as this is a vital and most important exercise of the state's police power.... As such its construction, consistent with its terms, should be sufficiently liberal to permit accomplishment of the legislative objective ...[.] Id. at 528, quoting, State ex rel. Eagleton v. Patrick, 370 S.W.2d 254, 257 (Mo.1963). [4] The Act was enacted as a response to public concerns about elderly residents of nursing homes and the inadequacy of state laws and regulations governing nursing home facilities. [5] The Act contains provisions enforcing laws requiring proper treatment of residents, including provisions for revocation of licenses, [6] civil penalties for non-compliance with the Act's standards, [7] and required training of nursing home staff. [8] Significantly, section 198.070 [9] required mandatory reporting by nursing home staff and doctors of suspected acts of abuse and neglect of residents. [10] A violation of this reporting law is a class A misdemeanor. Sec. 198.070.3. Under section 198.070.8, an individual who makes a good faith report of a suspected act of abuse or neglect is protected from criminal or civil liability. Additionally, section 198.070.10 provides that neither a nursing home operator nor any person in authority in a facility shall retaliate against any employee who reports suspected incidents of patient abuse and/or neglect, stating in pertinent part: No person who directs or exercises any authority in a facility shall evict, harass, dismiss or retaliate against a resident or employee because such resident or employee or any member of such resident's or employee's family has made a report of any violation or suspected violation of laws, ordinances or regulations applying to the facility which the resident, the resident's family or an employee has reasonably cause to believe has been committed or has occurred. Id. Clark v. Beverly Enters.-Missouri, Inc., 872 S.W.2d 522 (Mo.App. W.D.1994), held that this provision (198.070.10) implicitly creates a private right of action on the part of employees or others who are retaliated against or fired for reporting acts of abuse or neglect, stating: while section 198.070 does not expressly state that it creates a private cause of action, it would be illogical to say the legislature did not intend to allow private causes of action when it created a statute which compels an employee to report violations of the law, and protects her from retaliation or dismissal or conversely subject her to a penalty for failure to report a violation. Id. at 525-26. Clark further held that, although an at-will employee, plaintiff was protected from termination for any of the reasons prohibited by section 198.070.10, as that section made applicable to nursing homes and nursing home districts the public policy exception to the traditional rule that at-will employees can be dismissed for any reason. Id. at 525-526. See also, Porter v. Reardon Mach. Co., 962 S.W.2d 932, 936-37 (Mo.App. W.D.1998); Boyle v. Vista Eyewear, Inc., 700 S.W.2d 859 (Mo.App. W.D.1985) (holding when an at-will employee has been discharged for reporting to his superiors or to public authorities misconduct that constitutes a violation of the law and of well-established and clearly mandated public policy, the employee has a cause of action in tort for damages for wrongful discharge). This Court agrees with Clark that a private right of action in tort for employees of private nursing homes who are retaliated against for reporting violations of the Act is impliedly created by the language of section 198.070.10. As Clark noted, any contrary interpretation [w]ould discourage employees from complying with statutes like section 198.070 which require whistle-blowing to further the public policy of protecting the sick and elderly. 872 S.W.2d at 525. Permitting employees to sue if they are retaliated against for reporting acts of abuse or neglect is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the Act and to prevent the very evils the Act was designed to ameliorate.