Last one his ex wife wouldn't give Mom a can of pop, zero balance in bank, no calls, mom decided to call me after a year of this. I contacted ombudsman and she found fraud from all the POAs. Money all gone. She won't tell me if these people are going to be accountable for fraud. Mom died due to fired POA taking her out in virus situation. I am going after this lady and the nursing home for allowing her to take her out when she was fired and I was her daughter.
1. Your brother can't choose himself to act as proxy (what most people here refer to as acting as DPOA or POA), so that part doesn't make sense.
2. "Ombudsman found fraud from all of them." This opens a whole long list of questions: who was the ombudsman? What period of time was this? Were criminal investigations involved? What were the results?
An ombudsman may not be able to advise realistically if accountability can be achieved for fraud. Were the police involved? What were THEIR findings and decisions?
3. Who was the "fired POA" who took her "out in virus situation." What were the circumstances?
4. You plan to "go after" that "fired POA" and the nursing home. There aren't enough details here to even opine on whether this is an appropriate avenue for recourse.
5. Here's the bottom line on suing someone, which I assume is what you're considering, as if you were considering other action, you would be contacting the police and authorities.
To file a successful medical malpractice case, you need to prove several things.
These are also questions you would need to ask yourself:
1. How did any of the identified actions contribute to the death of your mother, father, or both? What specific actions did your brother take to constitute negligence, or mistreatment, and thus contribute to or cause your parents' death?
2. How does the nursing home facility's actions compare with those of other nursing homes? At one time, an element of medical malpractice (medmal) suits was proving that treatment was not consistent with the standard of care (a major issue) in that particular state. I haven't followed medmal laws since I retired, so I don't know if this is still a standard.
3. When I worked in medmal law firms years ago, the best firms hired a doctor in a similar practice area to review all the medical records, and opine on whether or not standards of care were met for your parent's conditions, with defined conditions leading to death and consistent with the norm for that area.
Ask your proposed attorney to do some legal research on the standards for filing and sustaining a medmal action in your area.
4. Be sure to raise the issue of the pandemic, and especially how it could be factored in or out in contributing to your parents' deaths. And raise the issue of who would paid for the medical analyses that would be required to determine that (a) COVID 19 wasn't a factor, and (b) the "fired POA" and nursing home were causative factors in your parents' deaths.
Be aware that decades ago, attorneys paid $500 + for reports from doctors who would be called to testify. It's probably much more now, even assuming that a med pro would testify in this kind of case. If the case if lost, YOU PAY these fees.
5. Be very well aware that defense attorneys for the would probably file a Motion to Dismiss early on, and may well ask you to pay their attorney fees. Can you afford to pay fees a defense attorney might charge?
In addition, what compensation or what do you want besides an admission? Given the overwhelmingly challenging conditions at NHs these days, they're lucky they still have uninfected staff to care for patients.
6. I won't deny that you experienced frustration; but you might get farther by asking an Ombudsperson to become involved, and contact Medicare (or Medicaid if it was involved) and complain to them. Medicare does do inspections, and might address some of your complaints generally.
As to your brother, I have no insights into that relationship, but I assume it's a contentious one.
7. Caring for terminal parents in this current situation can so easily be complicated by facilities with inadequate staff, or staff that become ill, or frustrated b/c they too are overworked and interact daily with high risk people. It's challenging for everyone.
Step back, assess your plans, and choose your plans carefully, and safely.
If you lost out on a possible inheritance (to which you were an heir named in her actual will) because of the fraud, that may be another issue -- but then you'd have to have solid evidence and then recover the fraudulently acquired funds, property or assets that were your mom's. You can't get blood from a stone if the thieves no long have any of it. I think you can certainly consult a criminal or elder law attorney for a 1-hour consult to see what they say. Then you can have a clearer path to either move forward, or move on. May you receive peace in your heart over this troubling matter.
As to whether there is a case for fraud, you say that an ombudsman told you that there was fraud. You should ask that person how you may proceed to report this fraud to a DA in your area. It would be up to him whether to prosecute and seek jail time for your brother or anyone else involved here.
I am sorry for this. But it is now too late. There certainly is no reason that you cannot attend a lawyer with your questions about "going after". But it may be time now to understand that this happened due to your parent's choices. And your parent is now gone. And you must move on and have a good life.
I do feel sorry for you if you felt that mom's care was mismanaged. Did she pass from COVID? Or just old age?
Sadly, this kind of thing happens all the time. Good luck finding a lawyer that will take your case--if there is no money, then there's no money. Old saying: you can't get blood out of a rock.
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Are you looking for advice on a particular detail of your description?
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