## Facts

- Madeline Neumann, age 89, was admitted to a nursing home with senile dementia and a seizure disorder.
- Neumann had executed an advance directive declining life-prolonging treatment or resuscitation if terminal or dying, and naming her granddaughter, Linda Scheible, as health care surrogate.
- Neumann was later found unresponsive; staff called 911, and emergency responders intubated her, administered medication, and restrained her during transport.
- Neumann remained intubated briefly at the hospital, was later extubated, and died several days later from cardiopulmonary arrest.
- Scheible, as personal representative, sued the nursing home and physician defendants under statutory, tort, and contract theories, including a claim under the Nursing Home Resident’s Rights Act and a breach of contract claim alleging the advance directive was incorporated into the care contract.
- The trial court entered summary judgment against Scheible on certain statutory claims for lack of a private cause of action, and later granted summary judgment on the Nursing Home Resident’s Rights Act claim because the alleged violation did not cause Neumann’s death.
- The case proceeded to trial on remaining theories; the jury found a breach of contract and awarded $150,000.
- The trial court denied Scheible’s request for prejudgment interest, treating the award as unliquidated personal-injury-type damages.

## Issues

1. Whether a personal representative may sue under Florida’s Nursing Home Resident’s Rights Act absent proof that the alleged deprivation of rights caused the resident’s death.
2. Whether prejudgment interest was required on a jury’s breach-of-contract award where the damages were unliquidated and personal-injury-like in character.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed summary judgment for the nursing home on the Nursing Home Resident’s Rights Act claim.
- The court held the personal representative’s statutory cause of action required a showing that the deprivation or infringement resulted in the resident’s death, and the record did not establish causation.
- The court affirmed denial of prejudgment interest on the $150,000 contract verdict.
- The court concluded the award functioned as unliquidated personal-injury-type damages rather than a liquidated contractual debt.

## Legal Principles

- Under Florida’s Nursing Home Resident’s Rights Act, a personal representative’s claim for a deceased resident is limited to circumstances where the rights violation caused the resident’s death.
- A plaintiff cannot avoid the statutory causation requirement by proving only that the facility violated a resident’s rights without linking that violation to the death.
- Prejudgment interest is generally awarded on liquidated damages (fixed or readily ascertainable as of a date certain), but not on unliquidated personal-injury-type damages.
- The label “breach of contract” does not control prejudgment interest; courts examine the nature of the damages awarded.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed (1) dismissal of the estate’s nursing-home rights claim because the alleged violation of the advance directive was not shown to have caused the resident’s death, and (2) denial of prejudgment interest because the contract award represented unliquidated, personal-injury-type damages.


Scheible v. Joseph L. Morse Geriatric Ctr., Inc., 988 So. 2d 1130 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2008)