Record judgment reduced

A record $18 million jury award has been replaced by a $3.5 million settlement between the operators of a North Idaho nursing home and the family of a man reportedly drugged to death in their care.

Post-trial negotiations reduced the amount granted to the family of Delbert L. Hayward, an 86-year-old mechanic who died in 1995 at the Valley Vista Care Center in St. Maries, representatives on both sides said Monday.

Family members had claimed that Hayward was controlled, abused and finally killed with massive doses of Haldol, a powerful anti-psychotic drug.

Under terms of the settlement – which caps more than a decade of legal wrangling – Valley Vista will pay about $100,000 and insurance companies for the nursing home will pay about $3.4 million, owner Scott Burpee said.

Burpee said the reduced payment supports his contention that Delbert Hayward received appropriate care.

“We don’t feel that we did anything wrong,” he said, adding later: “Obviously, the plaintiffs feel they didn’t have $18 million worth of arguments here, or they wouldn’t have settled for it.”

But a lawyer for Alfred S. Hayward, Del Hayward’s 77-year-old son, said there was no question that the man described as frail but feisty was mistreated.

“I can come up with 3.5 million reasons why they did something wrong,” said Richard C. Eymann, the Spokane attorney who has spent a decade arguing the case.

The Hayward family agreed to the settlement as a realistic conclusion to the case, he added.

“You can’t get blood out of a turnip,” said Eymann, who said no one wanted to fight with Valley Vista in bankruptcy court. “And $3.5 million against a nursing home is far and away the largest payment in Idaho history.”

Financial compensation was never the point of the legal action, which included two sessions before the Idaho Supreme Court, Hayward said.

“I had no illusions that we were going to walk out of there with more money than they had,” he said. “We wanted to send a message.”

During the trial, the message included the testimony of Dr. Sam Kidder, who crafted the Federal Nursing Reform Act known as OBRA 87, which established rules governing the use of anti-psychotic drugs in nursing homes.

Reached at his Maryland home, Kidder said he plans to publish an article based on the Hayward case in a pharmacy journal.

The original award and settlement should serve to remind nursing homes nationwide to avoid chemical restraint of clients.

“If you’re going to use those drugs, use them in accordance with accepted professional practice,” Kidder said.

The settlement requires Hayward to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit pending in Benewah County, according to documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court. It also requires dismissal of a lawsuit that accuses Valley Vista Care Corp. of fraudulent billing practices.

The dismissals effectively remove Valley Vista and Hayward from the legal action, leaving only Valley Vista’s insurance companies, Continental and Guideone Mutual, to hash out payment details.

Court documents indicate the only reason the case went to trial in May was because the insurance companies couldn’t agree on a settlement.

Lawyers for Continental originally proposed a $300,000 settlement, but Guideone representatives balked, according to the documents.

That forced the trial, said Kay Miller, president of the Valley Vista board of directors, who added she was relieved to put the matter behind her. Valley Vista Care Corp. owns or manages a half dozen centers with 350 clients statewide, including the St. Maries site.

“It got us out from under,” Miller said Monday. “I don’t feel bad about the insurance companies because we asked them to settle and they didn’t.”

Jurors reached Monday wouldn’t comment publicly on the settlement for fear of reprisals in the 2,500-member St. Maries community.

Privately, though, they said the large punitive award was intended to send a message that Valley Vista harmed Del Hayward – and that the nursing home needed to improve its practices. Burpee disputed the implication that his practices needed improving. He noted that his facility has consistently received stellar inspection reports and top awards for quality, claims confirmed by state records. He said lawsuits such as Hayward’s simply make providers wary of accepting frail patients.

“Litigation combined with regulation makes it harder to find care for people,” he said.

But for Hayward, legal action was the only way to keep a promise to his father.

“I made a commitment to my dad on his grave that I’d try to do something about it,” Hayward said.

“I guess I felt like this was a mountain I had to climb.”