From today’s Democrat & Chronicle comes the following sad story:
“The father of a mentally disabled man who drowned in the Genesee River after wandering away from his Brighton assisted-living home has sued the operator of the facility, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester.
In a complaint filed in state Supreme Court this week, Walter Cromartie of Rochester claims his 27-year-old son, Jeremy Cromartie, was “negligently left unsupervised and unmonitored” when he walked away from his Westerloe Avenue group home for the last time on July 1, 2009.
Jeremy’s body was found the next day in the river near the Summerville Pier in Charlotte. An autopsy determined that he had drowned.
…
Lawyer J. Matthew Parrinello, who is representing Cromartie, said it was believed that the group home staff was not to leave Jeremy alone and that he had been sent out of the house to take out the trash about 4 p.m. when he went missing.
…
The complaint does not demand specific damages, but rather a “sum of money that will fully, fairly, justly and adequately compensate” the family.
A phone message left for a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester was not immediately returned.”
I wonder who is going to foot the attorney bills and possible settlement/restitution if it turns out the diocesan Catholic Charities were negligent? Will more churches have to be sold to raise the money?
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Don’t assisted living facilities carry some kind of malpractice insurance?
Hopefully.
Any way you cut it, the mentally ill end up with the short end of the stick, so to speak.
If Parrinello is anything like his old man, it’ll be settled out of court.