Illinois Nursing Home Loses Trial, Moves for New Trial
Paul Graves' negligence suit against Rosewood Care Center in Edwardsville, filed on behalf of his father Alfred Graves, has been tried not once, but twice. The first case ended in a mistrial in 2007; the second case ended with a plaintiff's verdict on April 24, 2009.
Alfred Graves fell and broke his hip on the first day of his stay at the facility in January 2003. Paul Graves alleged that the nursing home violated its own procedures and failed to provide his father with adequate care. The jury awarded approximately $150,000 in damages to the plaintiff.
Defense attorney Dennis McCubbin has moved for yet another new trial in this case alleging judicial error and juror bias. McCubbin cited evidentiary errors made by the judge presiding over this case in allowing evidence of Rosewood's policies versus state law, failing to exclude certain evidence, and allowing plaintiff's counsel to proceed with a "bad-faith" line of questioning during the trial.
Among the jury panel was juror Ray Alexander, a plaintiff's attorney employed at Brown & Crouppen in St. Louis, Missouri. Alexander spent the first seven years of his practice as a defense attorney defending medical providers accused of injuring their patients before becoming a plaintiff's attorney. McCubbin is alleging that Alexander has an "anti-defendant" bias and that Alexander misrepresented his interest in the case to the court for economic reasons and that he could not be impartial. Reportedly, an associate of McCubbin allegedly overheard Alexander congratulating Bob Gregory on his verdict.
Plaintiff's attorney Gregory advised the court that juror Alexander had been completely candid with the Court concerning his profession and his employers and felt the verdict had been rendered fairly.
Judge David Hylla, who presided over both trials in this case, has taken the motion under advisement.
