November 25, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Even though Virginia law says charities can’t be sued over routine mistakes by employees or volunteers, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that nonprofit groups can be sued when they are accused of making serious errors resulting from extreme negligence.
The court said the legislature intended to protect charities from lawsuits involving routine errors so that nonprofit groups would be willing to take on jobs that not only help the public but also relieve government’s responsibility to do so. However, it said the legislature did not intend the law to protect charities from lawsuits over acts of extreme negligence.
The ruling came in a case involving Hospice Support Care, a Fredericksburg residential facility that provides temporary care for seriously ill patients. Ingrid H. Cowan sued the facility after her mother suffered a shattered bone in her leg when she was moved by an employee of Hospice Support Care. Though her mother was given morphine for her pain, she received no other medical treatment during the week she remained at the hospice, the court said. Her leg subsequently had to be amputated above the knee, and she died four days after that surgery, the court added.
Hospice Support Care did not dispute what happened, but argued that it should not be sued because of the protection given to nonprofit groups. A lower court had thrown out the lawsuit, citing the state law protecting charities. The Supreme Court ruling means the case can now go to trial, leaving it up to the lower court to determine whether the facility’s actions constitute gross negligence.
