Opinion ID: 1953037
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Retaliation Under the Abuse in Health Care Facilities Act

Text: Jalowy first argues that the trial justice erred in refusing to grant him judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial with respect to his claim that defendants retaliated against him for filing a report alleging a violation of the act. The trial justice denied Jalowy's motion on two grounds: (1) that Jalowy never filed a report containing sufficient information to warrant statutory protection under the act from retaliation; and (2) that, even if he did file such a report, the evidence adduced at trial was such that reasonable jurors could differ on whether Jalowy's banishment was the product of retaliation for his complaints to governmental authorities, or whether it was simply a legitimate response  however wrong-headed and heavy-handed  to what the home perceived to be Jalowy's threatening and disruptive behavior when he was on the premises as a visitor. In other words, the trial justice believed that a reasonable jury could conclude from the evidence introduced at the trial that the home had imposed the banishment sanction in question for reasons other than to retaliate for Jalowy's complaints about the nurses. Jalowy contends that, as a person who was not required to file a report under the act, he was not obliged to provide all the information that the act requires in a report to obtain the statutory protection from retaliation. Further, he argues, he was entitled to a rebuttable presumption that defendants' actions were retaliatory, and that defendants failed to rebut that presumption. We agree with Jalowy that the trial justice erred in finding that the act did not entitle him to assert a claim for retaliation merely because his complaints did not meet all the statutory requirements that a report to the Department of Health must contain, as outlined in § 23-17.8-2. Section 23-17.8-5(b) of the act provides protection against retaliation even to those who were merely about to make a report. In this case, Jalowy introduced enough evidence that a jury could have found that he was, at a minimum, about to make a report. He testified that he wrote a letter to the home voicing concern that the nurses were neglecting their duties, telephoned the Departments of Health and Elderly Affairs to report an incident of alleged neglect at the home, and even sent a letter addressing this incident to the Department of Elderly Affairs. Thus, the act provided him with protection against retaliation for these acts, despite the fact that he never filed a formal report that included all the statutorily specified information that such reports must contain. We also agree with Jalowy's contention that, having filed one or more reports under the statute  however incomplete they may have been  he was thereby entitled to sue for relief under the statute and to obtain the benefit at trial of a rebuttable presumption that his banishment from the home amounted to retaliation. See § 23-17.8-5(b) (Where a facility discharges, demotes, or retaliates by any other means against a person after he or she has made a report, testified, or was subpoenaed to testify as a result of a report required by this chapter, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the facility discharged, demoted, or retaliated against that person as a result of his or her report or testimony.). But when Jalowy failed to request such an instruction, the trial justice instructed the jury that defendants had no obligation to prove anything and that the burden is upon Mr. Jalowy to prove his claim to you. Although this instruction was erroneous with respect to Jalowy's retaliation claim because it failed to accord Jalowy the benefit of the statutory presumption, Jalowy did not object to it. As a result, the instruction as read became the law of the case. See, e.g., Habib v. Empire Productions, Inc., 739 A.2d 662, 665 (R.I.1999)(per curiam). And even though Jalowy belatedly attempted to argue this point in connection with his post-verdict motions, the trial justice did not err in refusing to apply the presumption in deciding these motions after previously instructing the jury as he did. This is so because Jalowy had waived any right to obtain the benefit of this presumption when he failed to request an appropriate jury instruction on this point and when he failed to object to the court's jury instructions that did not accord him the benefit of the statutory presumption. Id. Thus, according to the court's unobjected-to but erroneous instructions, Jalowy bore the burden of proving defendants' retaliatory motive in barring him from the home without the benefit of the statutory presumption. But even if Jalowy had requested an appropriate jury instruction on the statutory presumption and had objected on a timely basis to the court's proposed instructions that failed to instruct the jury accordingly  and even if the court thereafter had instructed the jury about the statutory presumption of retaliation  such a presumption would have been rebuttable by defendants. See § 23-17.8-5(b). And here, most tellingly, defendants introduced sufficient evidence for the jury to find that, presumption or no, defendants' actions toward Jalowy were not in fact taken in retaliation for his complaints about the nurses. For instance, Maureen Stone, one of the home's nurses, testified that Jalowy would insult the aides, and was uncooperative with the staff during his visits to the home. Stone further testified that, on the night before defendants terminated his visitation privileges, Jalowy had called one nurse a pencil-pushing bitch and then put his fist to Stone's face and said And you, too. Rotella testified that he had received complaints from the staff that, while visiting his mother, Jalowy had attempted to feed another resident and was, in general, running rampage around the facility. Thus, [b]ased upon the information that was given to [him] by [his] staff, Rotella felt [plaintiff] was a threat to the safety and welfare of the patients and employees. The jury could have relied upon such evidence in concluding that defendants' decision to exclude Jalowy from the home was not triggered by a retaliatory motive keyed to his complaints about the home's supposedly lazy and heartless nurses, but rather by defendants' legitimate concern for the safety and security of the home's staff and residents  irrespective of whether Jalowy had complained to various authorities about some of the nurses' conduct. Furthermore, as the trial justice correctly noted, this evidence was such that reasonable minds could differ on whether the home's action in barring Jalowy from the premises was in retaliation for Jalowy's reporting activity or was merely a legitimate administrative response designed to protect the staff and residents from the threatening acts of a perceived troublemaker. Skaling v. Aetna Insurance Co., 742 A.2d 282, 288 (R.I.1999). Thus, despite the court's failure to instruct the jury about the statutory presumption, we affirm the trial justice's decision not to grant Jalowy's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the retaliation claim. Id. With regard to the trial justice's decision denying Jalowy's alternate motion for a new trial, we conclude that by rejecting it cursorily in a few scant, conclusory sentences, he failed to independently weigh the evidence, to pass on the credibility of witnesses, and to draw reasonable inferences therefrom, as we require. See, e.g., Long v. Atlantic PBS, Inc., 681 A.2d 249, 254 (R.I.1996). In such circumstances, we apply the appellate rule and examine the record to determine whether there is any competent evidence that could support the jury's verdict. Hefner v. Distel, 813 A.2d 66, 70 (R.I.2003). As described above, defendants introduced sufficient evidence to support the jury's conclusion that the home's actions vis-à-vis Jalowy were not retaliatory, and thus we affirm the court's denial of Jalowy's new-trial motion on the retaliation claim.