Settlement reached in wrongful death lawsuit
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/65207/
A Washington County jury did not have to decide on Wednesday whether a mental health facility and its psychiatrist were to blame for the suicide of Judy Caldiero in 2005.
The case settled at about 2 p. m. after the jury waited for more than an hour to return from the lunch recess as attorneys worked out a deal.
The estate of Judy Caldiero and Andy Caldiero, her husband, filed the lawsuit against two separate defendants — Vista Health in Fayetteville and Dr. Lewis Britton, the psychiatrist who reviewed an assessment of Caldiero.
The family blamed the suicide on the defendants for failing to admit Caldiero for inpatient care five days before she shot herself at home with a handgun.
A couple of the jurors said to each other on the way out the courthouse that they were relieved they did not have to reach a verdict in the case. Jurors heard Caldiero’s husband and two daughters testify at length about their painful and unfortunate ordeal.
Settlements typically involve compensation to the plaintiff. They are almost always confidential, and defendants do not admit any guilt or wrongdoing.
None of the attorneys or parties would comment on the deal that was reached in this case.
“ It’s always good to look at a closed file, ” Bruce Munson, an attorney for Vista Health, said on his way out of the courtroom.
Typically, lawsuits are settled because the defendants do not want to take the risk of sending the case to the jury.
The most damaging testimony against the defendants came on Tuesday. An expert witness testified that Judy Caldiero should have been accepted for inpatient treatment. Britton referred her for outpatient treatment through a local psychiatrist.
Dr. Joel Reisman of Memphis, Tenn., said he concluded after reviewing the intake assessment of Caldiero and other documents that Vista Health wrongly concluded on Nov. 25, 2005, that Caldiero was at moderate risk of suicide. He said she should have been admitted for inpatient treatment because she was a serious risk of suicide.
He concluded that not admitting Caldiero for inpatient care was “ the approximate cause of her suicide ” based on a reasonable degree of medical certainty.
Testimony from Vista witnesses on Wednesday appeared to mitigate critical testimony on Tuesday.
Reisman testified that Karen Hatch, the Vista Health employee who conducted the assessment of Caldiero, was inadequately trained. Hatch testified that she had completed between five and 10 assessments before evaluating Caldiero.
Ken Kettelsen, Vista’s director of needs assessment, testified Wednesday that Hatch was mistaken because hospital records showed that she had completed 44 assessments before Caldiero. He testified Hatch was welltrained and competent.
Vista Health had one more witness to call before the settlement was reached. Britton never got a chance to present his defense.
Most trials go to the jury for a verdict, but that does not end the process because appeals are involved, 4 th Judicial Circuit Judge William Storey told the jury before he released them from the threeday trial. The settlement is “ probably in the best interest of everyone, ” he said.