Former resident charges Sun Healthcare with negligence

CHARLESTON – A man is suing Sun Healthcare Group for allegedly negligently caring for him with he was in its nursing home.

Also named as defendants in the suit are: Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc.; SHG Services, Inc.; Sunbridge Healthcare Corporation; Sunbridge Care Enterprises, Inc.; Sunbridge Beckley Health Care Corp.; William Stone; John Does 1 through 10; and Unidentified Entities 1 through 10 (as to Pine Lodge Care and Rehabilitation Center).

On June 30, 2011, Frank Sauchuck was admitted to Pine Lodge Care and Rehabilitation Center, where he remained a resident until Nov. 23, 2011, according to a complaint filed Nov. 26 in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Sauchuck claims the defendants were negligent in their care for him and allowed him to suffer falls and fractures.

It is reasonably foreseeable that injuries, abuse and neglect to residents of Pine Lodge Care and Rehabilitation Center would occur as a direct result of the administrator defendants’ failures to carry out their duties as administrators of the facility, according to the suit.

Sauchuck claims as a result of the defendants’ failure, he suffered injuries, extreme pain, suffering, mental anguish, embarrassment, disfigurement and fright.

The defendants knowingly and willfully misrepresented themselves to Sauchuck and the public as a nursing home that provided care in compliance with state and federal regulations, according to the suit.

Sauchuck claims the defendants represented that their services were of a particular standard, quality or grade when they knew their services were not.

The defendants also violated the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act by representing that the care being provided was a particular standard or quality that it knew it was not, according to the suit, and they used deception; false pretense; false promises; and/or misrepresentations; and/or the concealment, suppression and/or omission of material facts with the intent that Sauchuck and others would rely upon these things in connect with the sale of nursing home services.

Sauchuck is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. He is being represented by James B. McHugh, Michael J. Fuller Jr. and Amy J. Quezon.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge James C. Stucky.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 12-C-2332