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Estate of Ridley v. Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities11/22/2002
OPINION.
{ } Plaintiff-appellant the Estate of Jerome Ridley ("the estate") appeals from the trial court's judgment dismissing its second amended complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted pursuant to Civ.R. 12(B)(6). For the following reasons, we affirm in part and reverse in part and remand this case for further proceedings.
{ } Because this appeal is based on the dismissal of the estate's claims, the following facts taken from the estate's second amended complaint are accepted as true.
{ } Jerome Ridley was a mentally retarded adult male who had been a client of defendant-appellee Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities ("MRDD") since February 1998. MRDD had originally assigned one of its employees, defendant-appellee Jerry Clark, the task of coordinating all of the services necessary to assist Ridley in maintaining his well-being and a suitable living environment. Clark helped Ridley to secure an attic apartment at 1805 Queen City, Cincinnati, Ohio. The apartment contained two small windows, but the ratio of window space to the total square feet of the apartment was below the required ratio in the Cincinnati Building Code. Clark regularly visited Ridley up to five times a week.
{ } In October 1998, MRDD assigned another employee, defendant-appellee Sonjua Day, to assist in managing Ridley's needs. Day's job responsibilities consisted of visiting Ridley three times a week to train him in daily living skills and to assist him in maintaining all financial and medical benefits, in scheduling medical appointments, in building and maintaining relationships with people in the community, and in developing coping skills to ensure his continued well-being. Clark and Day each executed a form acknowledging and promising to enforce the rights of mentally retarded and developmentally disabled persons set forth in R.C. 5123.62.
{ } Both Clark and Day were aware that Ridley was not able to care for himself during severe weather. Specifically, Ridley would dress in many layers of heavy clothing on very hot days, confine himself in his apartment without air conditioning or a fan, and shut his windows. According to Day's case-management notes, she was aware that Ridley's tendency to overdress on warm days was taking a toll on him. On July 8, 1999, Day wrote, "It was so hot in his [Ridley's] apartment that I had to open the windows but Jerome kept shutting [them]. I told him he needed to come outside for air." On July 15, 1999, Day indicated in her notes that it took her "several times" to wake Ridley up before he would come outside. "He was over dressed for the weather." By that point, Day had decided that since Ridley was "not working with the plan," she was going to "close out" his case. There was no documentation that MRDD or any of its employees contacted Ridley to inform him that Day had terminated her services.
{ } During the following two weeks, July 16, 1999, to July 28, 1999, a severe heat wave hit Cincinnati, and approximately ten heat-related deaths were reported in the news. During this period, neither Day, Clark, nor any other MRDD employee attempted to visit Ridley or to communicate with him. Although it is unclear from the complaint, on either July 28 or 29, 1999, Clark went to check on Ridley "due to the heat" and found him dead from heat stroke. Apparently, Ridley had nailed his door shut and had sealed his windows with duct tape.
{ } On July 3, 2000, the estate filed a wrongful-death and survivorship action against MRDD. After conducting initial discovery on the original allegations, the estate filed an amended complaint on April 12, 2001, adding defendant-a
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