BRS Receives Win on Appeal in Case Where Nursing Home Recruited Violent Residents

On June 25, 2008, the San Antonio Court of Appeals upheld a multimillion-dollar verdict in favor of a family whose late father was savagely beaten by another nursing home resident.

The case arose after a nursing home in west Texas sought to increase its resident population by recruiting from the lockup wing of the local V.A. hospital. The nursing home took in a psychotic army veteran but placed him with the home's general population. The army veteran promptly attacked those around him indiscriminately, including the late Tranquilino Mendoza. The jury found the nursing home negligent and awarded the Mendoza family actual and punitive damages. When the nursing home appealed, the family and the trial team hired Beck Redden to help defend the verdict.

Beck Redden's David M. Gunn argued the appeal for the family, along with Henry Giessel of the firm Marks, Balette, and Giessel. Mr. Gunn did the briefing with the help of Beck Redden associate Erin Huber, and in collaboration with the trial team of David Marks, Jacques Balette, and Henry Giessel.