Court Opinion

ID: 9662920
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:23:04.546541+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:37:15.027322
License: Public Domain

FULLER, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in affirming the trial court’s judgment but wish to further add my views since the nursing home problems in our state are of growing magnitude. When reviewing a “no evidence” challenge, an appellate court must only consider the evidence and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, which when viewed in the most favorable light, support the jury’s verdict. We must disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. If there is more than a scintilla of evidence to support the finding, the no evidence challenge fails. Stafford v. Stafford, 726 S.W.2d 14 (Tex.1987). We, therefore, will review the evidence that the jury was entitled to believe and that which tends to support its verdict.
FACTS
Deerings Nursing Home is an institution operated for profit in Odessa, Texas. Ap-pellee, Velma Ponder Scott, was eighty years old when the incident giving rise to this lawsuit arose. In 1986, she had come to Odessa at the request of relatives to care for her brother, Henry Lee Ponder, and his wife. His wife was incapacitated and Henry Lee Ponder was ailing. Shortly thereafter Lee Ponder, who was older than Appellee (eighty-one — eighty-four years old) suffered a seizure requiring hospitalization. He was diagnosed as having terminal cancer of the brain and liver. Thereafter, he was placed in the Appellant nursing home to await his death. Appellee was requested by her relatives to visit and take care of him as best she could. He died some three weeks after the assault which occurred on November 2,1986. There was testimony both ways on whether or not the nursing home had posted visiting hours. There was also testimony that visiting hours had not been posted until after the assault incident. Regardless, the jury was entitled to believe that Appellee was given “free reign” to come and go as she wished when visiting her brother.
On November 2, 1986, between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., Appellee entered Deerings Nursing Home to see her brother as she had done many times before. As she walked down the hall, Ken Hopper, a 6 foot 4 inch male employee of Appellant, confronted her. Appellee stated:
He was so angry and his face just started with — looked like hate to me. He looked like — He looked like, I might have said, crazy man at one time.
She stated that he yelled at her; he looked “vicioüs.” She threw up her hands to protect her face but he hit her on the chin, slapped her down on the concrete floor and got on top of her, pinning her down.
On cross-examination by Appellant she was asked:
And out of the blue totally unexpected this man attacked you?
She answered:
That’s why I thought that he was on dope.
A nurse’s aid testified that eighty-year-old Appellee, Velma Scott, was so drunk that she fell down and that Ken Hopper went over to pick her up. This testimony was so unbelievable that even Appellant did not urge that it should be considered by the jury. Furthermore, it was not supported by any other witnesses including Ken Hopper.
THE HIRING OF KEN HOPPER
The following facts were before the jury in regard to the hiring of Ken Hopper.
*498Ken Hopper was in his thirties and 6 foot 4 inches tall. Immediately before being employed by Appellant he had been a bartender at the “Queen of Hearts” bar in Odessa, Texas. He had a male roommate who was a nursing assistant at Appellant Deerings Nursing Center. Ken Hopper testified he was hired “sight unseen” over the telephone when called by a Mrs. Parks, Director of Nursing for Appellant. Even though, the next day, he went to the nursing home to fill out the application, he still maintained he had already been hired by phone. In that application he falsely stated:
(1) That he had a Texas LVN license;
(2) That he had not been convicted of a crime.
He failed to advise that he had previously been employed in a bar or that he committed over fifty-six criminal offenses of theft. He was asked to produce his claimed California LVN license but only produced a wallet size card claiming that no other certificate was issued in California. He was then asked if he forged documents like the card that he had represented as being a California LVN license. He answered that he did not know how many he had forged but admitted forging a Texas license. He admitted to being on probation at the time of his testimony. He admitted that if a check had been made as to whether he had a Texas LVN license, the nursing home would be letting someone work there who was not licensed.
Mary Hedger was called as a witness by the Appellant. She testified she worked at Deerings Nursing Home as a nurse’s aide. She stated she was unaware that Hopper had a forged LVN license. She further testified that Ken Hopper did sign for narcotics dispensed by the nursing home. She agreed that the home had an obligation to check and verify the existence of an LVN license.
Ken Hopper admitted the nursing home had an obligation to check and verify the existence of an LVN license. He was then asked, “do you know whether or not if Deerings West knew that you didn’t have a Texas License, they would have permitted you to dispense narcotics to their patients?” The witness answered, “I don’t know.”
During the time Ken Hopper worked at Deerings, especially from April 1986 to November 2, 1986, when the incident with Appellee occurred, the Appellant made no effort to verify whether or not Ken Hopper was a Texas licensed LVN. No effort was made to check locally on his criminal record. The Director of Nursing for Deer-ings that hired Appellee was never called as a witness, nor was the personnel file as to Ken Hopper ever produced by any party to this lawsuit. It was well within the province of the jury to question whether Ken Hopper even had a valid California license since he was an admitted forger.
Frankly and bluntly stated, at the time of the attack on this eighty-year-old Appellee, the Appellant had on the payroll an imposter, a convicted thief, a forger and a liar. He had already been reprimanded during his employment before this incident occurred. Yet, Appellant placed Ken Hopper in a position of authority as a “supervisor.”
There was an abundant amount of competent evidence before the jury that Ken Hopper should never have been employed by Appellant Deerings Nursing Center.
NURSING HOME’S DUTY
Texas courts recognize that an employer owes a duty to the public to hire competent employees, especially where they are engaged in an occupation which could be hazardous to life and limb and requires skilled or experienced persons. The basis of responsibility under the doctrine of negligent hiring is the employer’s own negligence in hiring or retaining in its employ an incompetent employee who the employer knows or by the exercise of reasonable care should have known was incompetent or unfit, and thereby, causing an unreasonable risk of harm to others. It is well settled that a master may be subject to derivative liability for exemplary damages resulting from the acts of his servant where the master was negligent in the employment of the servant. Estate of Arrington v. *499Fields, 578 S.W.2d 173 (Tex.Civ.App.-Tyler 1979, writ ref'd n.r.e.).
A nursing home is under a duty to exercise a high degree of care in selecting employees. This is because many occupants of nursing homes throughout our State and nation are not only elderly but often physically and/or mentally impaired. Many are helpless, lonely, forsaken and ripe for abuse. As has been aptly stated by Roberta Gail Weatherby in 8 St. Mary’s L.J. 309 (1976):
[A]t least half of the nations nursing homes have one or more serious, life-threatening conditions and are, therefore, sub-standard. The Committee reports that in many cases patients are not treated humanely, and that they frequently encounter abuse and physical mistreatment including negligent and intentional actions which lead to injury or death.
The problem is more serious today than it was fourteen years ago when the above article was written. Nursing homes are abound with elderly patients and their elderly visiting friends and relatives. Considering the nature of its business nursing/convalescent homes owe a high degree of care in selecting competent employees and refrain from hiring the services of an unfit employee. Therefore, as in the instant case, when an unlicensed employee is negligently hired to do the work of a licensed employee and is placed in a position of authority and, as a result, injury is occasioned to a third person, the nursing home employer may be liable even though the injury was brought about by the willful act of the employee beyond the scope of his employment. 53 Am.Jur.2d sec. 423 (1970), Master and Servant. It is better stated in 57A Am.Jur.2d sec. 199 at 249 (1989), under Negligence, Generally:
Persons who are known to have mental or physical disabilities, or who are young and inexperienced, are entitled to a degree of care exercised by others proportioned to their incapacity to protect themselves.
[[Image here]]
The rationale of this principle of law is that natural justice requires that greater consideration and care are due to persons known to be unable to take care of themselves than to those who are fully able to do so.
STATUTORY ENACTMENTS
Under its police powers, the State may set up standards to be satisfied by persons who seek to engage in activities that affect public health, safety or welfare. In the exercise of this power, standards of personal fitness may be created and may be enforced by laws requiring persons who desire to engage in learned professions or in occupations requiring scientific or technical knowledge to take and pass an examination as a prerequisite to engaging in such activities. The legislature may, through appropriate laws, protect the public against incompetency, fraud and oppression where, from the nature of the business or occupation or the manner in which it is conducted, the natural consequences may be injurious to the public welfare. 51 Am.Jur.2d sec. 47 at 53 (1970), “Determination of applicant’s fitness for license.”
As to the importance of hiring a licensed person to perform certain duties we should first endeavor to ascertain the legislative intent from a general review of the enactments pertaining to nursing home and personnel. Bloom v. Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, 475 S.W.2d 374 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin 1972), rev’d on other grounds, 492 S.W.2d 460 (Tex.1973). In Texas, the legislative intent as to the operation of nursing homes is clearly expressed.
Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4442c (Vernon 1976) titled “Health-Public — Convalescent and nursing homes and related institutions” states:
Section 1 — “The purpose of this Act and the Licensing Agency created herein is to promote the public health, safety and welfare by providing for the development, establishment and enforcement of standards.” The statute provides for licensing, annual reports, inspections, denial and revocation of license, regulation of nursing *500home personnel, as well as qualifications and criminal penalties for operating without a license.
Article 4442d titled, “Nursing Home Administrators Licensure Act” provides that a person who administers, manages or supervises must be licensed. This article creates a board enforce standards, set qualifications, prescribe education and require the taking and passing of an examination. The article requires Administrators to be of “good moral character” and the board has authority to renew, suspend or revoke the license. The article also provides for criminal penalties if a nursing home administrator acts without a license.
Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4528c (Vernon 1976), pertains to Licensed Vocational Nurses — It creates a board of nine members who must employ a full-time director of training. The statute sets educational requirements, provides for an examination and requires that the applicant for a license must present sworn evidence that he is of “good moral character.” The board has the authority to revoke, deny or suspend a license.
Article 4528c has been amended and “added to” rather than shortened indicating a clear realization on the part of our state legislature of the growing seriousness of the nursing home problems in relation to specialized employees.
CONCLUSION
The Texas statutory enactments relating to the operation of nursing homes have been broadened to provide standards from the creation of boards to oversee the examination, education to the licensing of nursing home administrators as well as LVNs. These statutes emphasize that applicants must be of “GOOD MORAL” character. The clear legislative intent is to protect the public by providing a level of fitness and competency for those placed in a position of responsibility. Appellant violated the very purpose of the licensing statutes by hiring an unfit, incompetent and certainly a person lacking “good moral character.” Appellant did not stop there, but then placed him in a position of authority which not only allowed him to dispense drugs but placed him on a shift as “supervisor” resulting in the ultimate inexcusable assault on an elderly woman. Under the facts of this case, Appellant breached its duty of care in failing to validate whether or not Ken Hopper had a Texas LVN license. Ken Hopper therefore was not a trustworthy, capable, reliable person of “GOOD MORAL” character as contemplated by statute. Without qualifying as a Texas LVN he was incompetent and unfit to perform the job of a Texas LVN supervisor. The jury was entitled to decide whether or not there was a causal connection between Appellant’s failure to validate the existence of Ken Hopper's Texas LVN license and the resulting injuries suffered by Appellee.
The failure of Appellant to hire a Texas LVN under the circumstances also raises a fact issue as to whether its conduct was in “heedless and reckless disregard” of the rights of others.
I agree that the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed.