Ballard v. Plantation Management Co.

Summary

Justice Johnson would have granted the writ application in a wrongful death action arising from a nursing-home resident’s fall, hip fracture, and subsequent death. The dissent concludes that affidavits from a geriatric nurse and forensic pathologist provided sufficient evidence of the applicable standard of care, breach, and causation to defeat summary judgment.

Holdings

1. Justice Johnson would hold that Ballard's affidavits, considered together, supplied sufficient evidence of the applicable standard of care, breach, and causation to defeat summary judgment.
2. Justice Johnson would hold that Louisiana law does not require the standard of care to be established with a particular level of specificity when a plaintiff opposes summary judgment in a medical-malpractice case, so long as the evidence identifies the standard and supports specific breaches.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Ballard submitted sufficient expert evidence concerning the applicable nursing-home standard of care, breach, and causation to defeat summary judgment on the wrongful-death claim.
2. Whether an expert affidavit opposing summary judgment must state the applicable medical-malpractice standard of care with a particular level of specificity.

Disposition

other