Elizabeth Marie Kennedy, et al. v. United States of America
Judge rules in favor of defense.
Defense retained expert: Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn
Excerpt:
None of the facts known (or that should have been know) by Dr. Diebold
and the other medical personnel at the V.A. held any clue that Kennedy
would take his own life on February 22, 1994. Unlike the cases cited
by the plaintiffs in which the decendent's suicide was found to be
foreseeable, see, e.g., Dinnerstein v. United States, 486
F. 2d 34 (2nd Cir. 1973) (decendents' extensive history of mental
depression and suicidal tendencies provided notice of need for heightened
supervision); Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School for Deaconesses
and Missionaries v. Perotti, 419 F. 2d 704 (D.D.C. 1969) (suicide
of psychiatric patient who had previously been diagnosed as suicidal
and who suffered from 'paranoid depression,' apathy, slowness of
speech, delusions of persecution, and depression on day of suicide
was foreseeable), nothing known or that should have been known by
Dr. Diebold or the other VA personnel should have sent up a red flag
that Kennedy posed a danger to himself. As the defendant's reply
suggests, Dr. Diebold did not have a crystal ball to foresee that
sending Kennedy home (as he insisted) would result in his act of
suicide.
Because Kennedy's suicide was not a foreseeable consequence of the defendant's
employees' acts, the court grants the defendant's motion for summary
judgment. [Case No. 96-4032-SAC, In the United States District Court
for the District of Kansas]
