Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

U.S. Wins Record $240 Million Discrimination Verdict in Iowa

Excerpt from: Bloomberg Business (click for full article)

 

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said an Iowa jury awarded $240 million in damages, a record for the agency, in a trial accusing a Texas-based turkey processing company of severe abuse and discrimination against workers with intellectual disabilities.

The jury in federal court in Davenport, Iowa, found that Hill Country Farms Inc., doing business as Henry’s Turkey Service, subjected 32 men to verbal and physical harassment, harsh living conditions and other abuses from 2007 to 2009, after 20 years of similar mistreatment, the EEOC said today in a statement.

The Goldthwaite, Texas-based company employed the men in Iowa, where they worked eviscerating turkeys. The EEOC presented evidence that the company exploited the workers because their intellectual disabilities made them vulnerable and unaware of their rights, the agency said.

$6M Award Upheld for ‘Rampant’ Sex Abuse of Deaf and Blind Children

Excerpt from: Lawyers.com (click for full article)

 

A federal court has upheld a $5.75 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging rampant student-on-student sex abuse at the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind.

The lawsuit claimed that a group of older students who called themselves “the ringleaders” bullied, terrorized, assaulted, robbed, gang raped and sodomized younger, smaller students at the school.

The parents of the victims blamed the school administration, the state of Hawaii, and school counselors for not providing a safe school environment and for trying to cover up the abuse.

Each of the class members will receive $20,000 or more, depending on the degree of abuse they suffered and other factors that figure into the impact of the abuse and the amount of damages they are owed for their injuries, such as whether the abuse affected their job history, mental health, substance abuse and other evidence of physical, psychological and emotional consequences.

Judge closes book on lawsuit involving nursing home residents with intellectual, developmental disabilities

Excerpt from: McKnight's (click for full article)

 

A U.S. District Court judge has brought a definitive end to a large, long-running class action case involving nursing home residents with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Lead plaintiff Loretta Rolland, now 71, and four other plaintiffs brought the case against the state of Massachusetts in 1998. They contested the state system of placing people with intellectual or developmental disabilities in nursing homes, saying that these residents were not being given “active treatment” in these facilities, and that many were capable of living in other settings. The class of plaintiffs eventually exceeded 1,800 people as the case stretched on for 15 years.

The plaintiffs sought other care options, such as specialized group homes, for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They also wanted nursing homes to provide more active, comprehensive care plans for those who could not move into different settings. Opponents included the families of some of the nursing home residents, who felt their loved one required care in the skilled setting and feared forced removals.

Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against Golden Corral Restaurant for Violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Excerpt from: DOJ (click for full article)

 

The Department of Justice announced today the settlement of its lawsuit against the Golden Corral restaurant in Westland, Mich., which alleged that the owners and operators of the Golden Corral violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by denying service to a mother and her minor children based on the appearance of the children’s skin due to a genetic skin disorder.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, alleged that the manager of the Golden Corral restaurant demanded that Danielle Duford and her four daughters leave the restaurant based on the appearance of the children’s skin caused by a genetic skin disorder, epidermolysis bullosa, which causes blisters to form on the skin in response to minor injuries and temperature changes.   Despite Duford informing the restaurant manager of her children’s disability and repeatedly emphasizing that they did not have a contagious disease, the manager required the family to immediately leave the restaurant, claiming that he had received complaints from other customers.   Title III of the ADA prohibits public accommodations, such as restaurants, from discriminating against people on the basis of disability, or their association with an individual with a disability, in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods or services offered. 

One Step Forward On Mental Health Parity

Excerpt from: psych-appeal.org (click for full article)

 

Yesterday, the United States District Court for the District of Vermont became the first court in the country to interpret the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008—and that decision is favorable to mental health patients. 

In C. M. v. Fletcher Allen Health Care, Inc., plaintiff C. M. challenges her health plan’s administration of mental health benefits. Specifically, she alleges that the Plan violates MHPAEA by: (1) requiring pre-approval for routine mental health services but not for medical-surgical services; (2) conducting concurrent reviews of mental health services but not requiring such reviews for medical-surgical services; and (3) initiating automatic review processes triggered by a fixed number of visits for mental health services but not for medical-surgical services.

The defendant argued that the Interim Final Regulations under MHPEA require that, in addition to demonstrating that mental health services were treated in a different manner than medical-surgical services, patients have to demonstrate that “no clinically appropriate standard of care would permit a difference,” to prove violation of MHPAEA. The Court disagreed, finding that “the Parity Act was promulgated to eliminate impermissible disparity in the benefits afforded for mental health and substance abuse disorders when compared to those afforded medical/surgical conditions. ...  It stands to reason that plan administrators would also bear the burden of establishing, under the Parity Act, why mental health and medical benefits are treated differently based upon divergent clinical standards.”

Mentally disabled Iowa plant workers awarded $240 million for years of abuse

Excerpt from: The Oakland Press (click for full article)

 

An Iowa jury on Wednesday awarded a total of $240 million to 32 mentally disabled Iowa turkey processing plant workers for what government lawyers described as years of around-the-clock abuse and discrimination by the Texas company that oversaw their care, work and lodging.

The federal jury in Davenport determined that Henry’s Turkey Service, of Goldthwaite, Tex., violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by creating a hostile living and working environment and imposing discriminatory conditions of employment. The jury also found that the company acted with “malice or reckless indifference” to the men’s civil rights.

Jurors awarded each of the men $7.5 million apiece after a weeklong trial that featured emotional testimony from social workers who described the physical and verbal abuse they suffered. That includes $5.5 million apiece in compensatory damages for their pain and suffering and $2 million apiece to punish the company for knowingly violating the law.

Jury Awards $240 Million in Henry's Turkey Case

Excerpt from: Disability Law (click for full article)

 

In a decision that legal experts are calling "stunning," an Iowa jury this morning awarded $240 million to the 32 mentally disabled men who faced decades of discrimination and abuse while working for Henry's Turkey Service in Atalissa. 

When jurors announced the judgment, after less than eight hours of deliberation, Sherri Brown, the sister of one of the 32 men, broke down in tears inside the Davenport courtroom. 

"I totally lost it," she said later. "I wanted the jury to make a statement so that my brother Keith and all of those men would know that someone had heard them. And if this isn't a statement, I don't know what is." 

The $240 million judgment reflects $2 million in punitive damages for each of the 32 men, plus $5.5 million in compensatory damages for each of the men.

Family Sues Over Altered Photo Of Son With Down Syndrome

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

In what’s believed to be a first-of-its-kind case, a family is bringing a federal lawsuit after a photo of their son with Down syndrome was doctored and spread across the Internet.

Adam Holland was 17 in 2004 when he was photographed taking part in an art class at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, which serves people with developmental disabilities. In the image, Holland is seen smiling, holding up a piece of paper with a picture that he drew.

Nearly a decade later, however, Holland’s parents, Pamela and Bernard Holland of Nashville, Tenn., say in court papers that they were stunned to find the image of their son altered and reposted numerous times across the Web.

In one case the Hollands found that a Tampa, Fla. radio station posted the photo of their son with his drawing replaced by the words “Retarded News.” Another website called Sign Generator allegedly made a version available to download for a fee under the heading “Retarded Handicap Generator.” And in a third instance, the family says that a Minnesota man posted the image on Flickr with the words “I got a boner” in place of their son’s drawing.

Now the Hollands are suing the radio station’s owner, Cox Media Group, as well as the owner of the Sign Generator website and the Flickr user. In a federal court filing last week the family said that posting the “unauthorized, deceptive, false, misleading and defamatory images” caused “severe mental anguish and emotional distress” and they’re seeking compensatory and punitive damages totaling $18 million.

Lawsuit: Girl with disabilities sexually assaulted at school

Excerpt from: Tuscaloosa News (click for full article)

 

An eighth-grade student with disabilities was sexually assaulted in an empty classroom at Oak Hill School five years ago, according to a lawsuit filed in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court last week.

The suit filed by the girl’s mother claims that a 14-year-old male student assaulted the then-14-year-old girl in 2007.

The complaint names the school’s former principal, two teachers and a teacher’s aide as defendants. Tuscaloosa City Schools is not named because the system receives state funding and is immune from lawsuits in all but a few circumstances.

Disabled people vow to appeal against independent living fund ruling

Excerpt from: The Guardian (click for full article)

 

Five disabled people will ask the court of appeal to overturn a high court ruling that on Wednesday upheld the government's decision to abolish a scheme that helps them live independently.

Their lawyers had asked Mr Justice Blake, sitting in London, to declare unlawful the consultation process that led to the proposed axing of the £320m independent living fund (ILF).

Dismissing the application, the judge said many issues relating to the future funding of ILF users remained outstanding, but the consultation process had been lawful.

Lawyers acting for the five said Wednesday's ruling at the Royal Courts of Justice was flawed and did not reflect the evidence before the court.