A policy lapse means an insurer doesn’t have to defend an assisted living community against a wrongful death lawsuit, the insurer argues in federal court.
Wisconsin-based Church Mutual Insurance Co., now Church Mutual Insurances SI, filed an insurance coverage lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court for the 7th Circuit in Illinois against the senior living operator Texas-based Frontier Management and Ohio-based Welltower Tenant Group doing business. like Hostel at Orchard Park, an assisted living and memory care community in Morton Grove, IL.
In the lawsuit, Church alleges she has no obligation to defend the senior living provider and management companies in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of a former resident who died in 2021.
Charles Nedoss, the son of Bertrand Nedoss, filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County, IL on October 15, 2021, against Welltower, Auberge at Orchard Park and Frontier Management. The lawsuit claims that in December 2020, Bertrand Nedoss – a resident from July 18, 2017 to January 5, 2021 – drank a sample solution of COVID-19, resulting in pneumonia. On January 5, 2021, Nedoss reportedly left the community undetected and later died of hypothermia and cardiac arrest after being outside in cold weather for hours.
The wrongful death lawsuit alleges the community failed to supervise Nedoss, who the suit says was a known flight risk, and failed to provide working alarms, properly train staff, perform hourly checks or responded to door and bed alarms.
After receiving the lawsuit in January 2022, Church Mutual said the underlying lawsuit was not covered by professional liability coverage because it was filed after that policy expired on July 1, 2021. Church Mutual Insurance argued that the policy in effect at the time of the 2021 trial was issued by Everest Indemnity Insurance Co.
Frontier, in turn, demanded that the Church modify its coverage position to provide full defense and indemnification under the terms of its policy. In December, Church Mutual agreed to pay 100% of defense costs but asserted the right to reimbursement of those costs and the right to sue for declaratory judgment.
Last summer, a federal judge has ruled that Church Mutual Insurance does not have to defend Prairie Village Supportive Living, doing business as Eagle’s View Supportive Living and Memory Care in Illinois, in a potential class action lawsuit for alleged practices wrongful employment. But the insurer lost a case Last July, when an appeals court ruled that Church must defend a since-closed assisted living community in a class action lawsuit brought by former residents alleging breach of contract and negligence.
Frontier Management had not responded to requests for comment from McKnight Senior Residence from the production deadline.