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]