Congratulations to Dana Levy and trial counsel, Scott Hendler and Grayson McDaniel, who successfully defended a challenge to their nursing administrator and forensic pathology expert reports. In this nursing-home negligence case in which a resident died of hypothermia during Winter Storm Uri, the defendants objected that licensed nursing home administrators and a forensic pathologist were unqualified to provide preliminary expert reports under Chapter 74 because the administrators were not medical providers who treat patients, and the pathologist had never treated seniors. The trial court denied motions to dismiss the case and the court of appeals affirmed, holding that the nursing home administrators were qualified because their expertise spoke to the plaintiff’s core allegation that the nursing home and its executives failed to provide a safe physical environment for residents and that the forensic pathologist did not need to treat patients to offer causation opinions. The case is Ramsay v. Ferguson, No. 07-23-00392-CV, 2024 WL 769537 (Tex. App.—Amarillo Feb. 23, 2024, no pet. h.) (mem. op.). You can read the opinion here.
