An Iowa nursing home that was hit with a $6 million jury verdict was granted a new trial by an appeals court due to improper evidence, the Des Moines Register reported June 22.
Buffalo, Iowa-based Timely Mission Nursing Home was sued by the family of Darlene Weaver, a resident who died in June 2017 of injuries suffered from a fall. The lawsuit accused the nursing home staff of negligence, including failing to take measures to prevent additional falls. In 2021, the case went to trial, and the family was awarded $6 million in damages, which is the largest award the family's attorney was aware of being won in any Iowa nursing home negligence case.
The nursing home appealed the decision, and on June 21, the court reversed the verdict and offered a new trial after the judges found the trial court wrongly permitted hearsay testimony. During trial, several witnesses testified of negligence and abuse allegations they'd heard secondhand. The court found much of that evidence to constitute hearsay and said it should have been excluded during the original trial.
The family plans to appeal the decision to the state's supreme court, the report said.