Court Opinion

ID: 9574790
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:08:25.803918+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:45:13.263423
License: Public Domain

GILBERT, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I agree with all of the majority’s conclusions except their narrow construction of the reporting standard of the Vulnerable Adults Act (VAA), Minn.Stat. § 626.557 (1994). Because I interpret the VAA to set forth a lower reporting standard than the majority does, I believe that the plaintiffs, two vulnerable adults, presented sufficient issues of fact regarding the suspected abuse to allow the case to proceed to the jury.
Subdivision 1 of the VAA clearly states the legislature’s purpose in enacting the statute: “to protect adults who, because of physical or mental disability or dependency on institutional services, are particularly vulnerable to abuse or neglect.” Minn.Stat. § 626.557, subd. 1. The legislature adds that the public policy of the state requires “the reporting of suspected, abuse or neglect of vulnerable adults.” Id. (emphasis added). The language from subdivision 1 mandating reporting of suspected abuse is repeated in subdivision 4, which describes the report that must be made:
The written report shall be of sufficient content to identify the vulnerable adult, the caretaker, the nature and extent of the suspected abuse or neglect, any evidence of previous abuse or neglect, name and address of the reporter, and any other information that the reporter believes might be helpful in investigating the suspected abuse or neglect.
Id., subd. 4 (emphases added).
The legislature’s repeated use of the term “suspected” is a sufficient indication that the legislature indeed intended for abuse to be reported when it was merely suspected. The majority focuses almost exclusively on the language of subdivision 3, which states that a health care professional must make a report when she either knows about the abuse or “has reasonable cazise to believe that a vulnerable adult is being or has been abused or neglected.” Id., subd. 3 (emphasis added). While I tend to agree with the majority that the reasonable cause to believe standard may involve a higher standard than suspicion, suspicion must remain a part of the equation.
Accordingly, the trial court should give an instruction on suspicion that is consistent with the VAA’s stated policy of protecting adults who are vulnerable to abuse or neglect because of mental or physical disability. Id., subd. 1. The legislature’s purpose, served by requiring reports based on less information, arises from the perceived notion that vulnerable adults may not be in a position to fend for themselves when entrusted into the care of a health care professional who may be fully aware of the patients’ vulnerability.
*412Evaluating the facts of this ease in light of the legislative public policy requiring reporting of suspected abuse and construing them in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, I conclude that the plaintiffs submitted sufficient evidence to create a legally sufficient question of fact to go to the jury. See Zinnel v. Berghuis Constr. Co., 274 N.W.2d 495, 498 (Minn.1979). House knew of Routt’s significant boundary violations with another female patient, and she knew or should have known that he committed the serious boundary violation of drinking in front of the plaintiffs while treating them. A pattern of abuse and neglect should have been apparent to House, an experienced psychiatric nurse possessing special training and understanding of such problems. A report would have initiated an inquiry or investigation by appropriate authorities and may have brought necessary help to these two vulnerable adults as well as to Routt.
Routt’s drinking in front of the plaintiffs while treating them, which the majority concludes House should have known about, was all the more serious given the fact that one of the plaintiffs was chemically dependent. Abuse includes “any repeated conduct which produces or could reasonably be expected to produce mental or emotional distress,” and neglect includes failure to provide the vulnerable adult with necessary health care. Minn. Stat. § 626.557, subd. 2(d)(2), 2(e). Routt’s drinking in front of these patients fits the statutory definition of abuse.
Subdivision 7 of the VAA imposes liability on a mandated reporter who negligently fails to make a required report. If the jury were to find that House should have had reasonable cause to believe that Routt abused the plaintiffs and was negligent in failing to report the abuse, it would then decide the amount of damages as well. See id., subd. 7. I would therefore uphold the court of appeals’ decision to overturn the directed verdict in favor of House and to remand the case for a new trial of the plaintiffs’ claims against House under the VAA.