Plaintiff’s decedent Margaret Stanley, 92, was a patient under the care of The Clairmont Nursing Home in Tyler. On Aug. 22, 2002, Clairmont staff noticed that fire ants were present in Stanley’s room and called the home’s regular exterminator, Keith Brown, doing business as National Exterminators. Brown arrived to spray Stanley’s room for ants the following day at about noon.That evening at approximately 6:15 p.m., Stanley’s daughter, plaintiff Gail Debenport, arrived at The Clairmont to visit her mother. She entered Stanley’s room and found a nursing aide removing Stanley’s food tray. Hearing her mother moaning and groaning, Debenport approached her bed to check on her. She saw ants on Stanley’s pillows and brushed them away. When she then reached down to hug her mother, she saw that Stanley’s right arm and shoulder were covered with ants.Stanley died in February 2003.Contending that Stanley’s death was caused by ant bites, Debenport and her brother sued Brown and The Clairmont, alleging negligence. In March 2005, they settled with The Clairmont for $350,000.
The plaintiffs alleged that Brown failed to use proper pest control chemicals, failed to use proper equipment and failed to use proper pest control procedures for fire ant infestation in that he did not completely seal off Stanley’s room, nor did he have a proactive fire ant prevention program in place. They further claimed Brown had failed to treat a spot behind the curtain along a baseboard, which allowed ants to get into the room in the first place. Plaintiffs also alleged gross negligence based on Brown’s admission that he was addicted to methamphetamine and that at the time of the incident he used the drug on weekends.
Defense counsel argued that Brown had been an exterminator for The Clairmont for five years, and the nursing home never had fire ants anywhere in the building during that time. In addition, the nursing home administrator testified in a deposition that Brown was providing the same pest control treatments that he had seen other pest control operators perform in the many other nursing homes in which he had worked, and prior to this incident he never had any concerns about the way Brown performed his job.
Furthermore, Brown’s counsel placed the blame on the nursing home, arguing that the home took poor care of Stanley. For instance, Stanley’s roommate regularly hoarded food in her bed and threw it on the floor between her bed and Stanley’s, and that the nursing home had allowed this to continue to the point that a large stain had developed on the carpet between the beds. Additionally, the nursing home staff found ants in the roommate’s bed the day before ants were discovered on Stanley, yet neither Stanley nor her roommate were removed from the room at that time. Moreover, counsel argued that when Debenport discovered the ants on her mother, the nursing home aide in the room removing a food tray from Stanley failed to notice hundreds of ants on Stanley’s right arm and shoulder.
Plaintiffs sought damages for conscious pain and suffering, mental anguish, impairment, and deterioration of functional conditioning suffered by Stanley prior to death, and for the reasonable and necessary medical expenses incurred because of the ant bites. Additionally, plaintiffs sought exemplary damages for Brown’s alleged gross negligence.
Plaintiff’s counsel alleged that Stanley’s ant bites caused her to develop a blood clot in her lungs, contributed to her decreased mental capacity over the six months before she died, and generally contributed to the overall deterioration in her overall health, including her mental capacity. Stanley died from hypozemia at the age of 92.
Defense expert Dr. Robert Bux testified that testified that Stanley’s condition was likely caused by a complication from a hip surgery Stanley had two weeks before the ant infestation. Stanley had also suffered a series of mini-strokes before the infestation, which could explain her diminished mental capacity, Bux opined.
The jury allocated 15 percent liability to Brown and 85 percent liability to The Clairmont, awarding the plaintiffs $5,000.