State Supreme Court Affirms Dismissal of Assisted Living Negligence Lawsuit Based on Two-Year Statute of Limitations

A Mississippi Appellate Court has held that the two-year statute of limitations for the wrongful death of Sanders Hopkins Sr. was the basis for the dismissal from the lawsuit brought by Hopkins’ son.

Hopkins Sr. lived in the Biloxi Community Living Center (CLC), an assisted living facility. He who used a wheelchair, required dialysis and was transported to an outside medical facility for these treatments. After dialysis one day, he fell from his wheelchair, hitting his head. Later the same day, he injured his head a second time, which led to a subdural hematoma, the condition that caused his untimely death.

Hopkins’ son sued the company that transported him to the dialysis appointments and the medical facility. More than two years had passed after Hopkins’s death when his son amended his complaint adding CLC as a party defendant.

It was alleged in the amended complaint that the placement of Hopkins in an improperly sized wheelchair caused his falls. CLC moved to dismiss, arguing that the Hopkins family claims were time-barred. The trial judge agreed and granted CLC’s motion to dismiss.

On appeal, the state appellate court affirmed and rejected Hopkins’s argument that although he had been well aware of his father’s injuries, Hopkins’s son did not learn of CLC’s role in causing harm until Hopkins’s medical records were received from the facility, or until the deposition of the driver who transported Hopkins on the date of the falls.

His son knew on the date of the incident that his father had fallen out of a wheelchair that was provided by CLC. Accordingly, the state appellate court agreed that the limitations period for the plaintiff’s lawsuit against CLC expired no later than two years after Hopkins’s death.

Hopkins v. CLC of Biloxi, LLC, 229 So. 3d 742 (Miss. Ct. App. 2017).

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling nursing home abuse lawsuits, nursing home negligence cases, wrongful death lawsuits, assisted living facility negligence lawsuits and medical malpractice lawsuits for individuals, families and their loved ones who have been injured, harmed or killed by the negligence or carelessness of a medical provider for more than 40 years, in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Merrionette Park, Lansing, LaGrange Park, Hoffman Estates, Hickory Hills, Harwood Heights, Country Club Hills, Countryside, Crete, Bensenville, Berkeley, Barrington Hills, Willow Springs, Chicago (Polish Village, Little Italy, Wicker Park, Portage Park, Norwood Park, Edison Park, Sauganash, Mayfair, Albany Park, Kenwood, West Loop), Western Springs and Wheaton, Ill.