Disabled man's claims against DDSN sent back to court

COLUMBIA – A lawsuit filed by a severely disabled man who suffered a beating by an employee of a group home has been sent back to a judge who first dismissed some of the man's claims.

The state Court of Appeals panel ruled this week that a judge should not have dismissed claims of negligence, gross negligence, civil rights violations and negligent supervision against the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs and two of its former leaders, Stan Butkus and Kathy Lacy.

Butkus, who became state director for South Carolina Mentor after leaving DDSN as its executive director, and Lacy could be reached for comment.

The suit is being brought by the estate of Edward Mims, who died in 2015.  The suit alleges he suffered numerous injuries while under the care of two Midlands group homes including a cut to his penis that took seven sutures to close. The litigation has lasted a decade.

The suit alleges he was hurt while in the care of Clusters and Kensington group homes, from 1999 to 2005, according to court records. Both facilities were under the oversight of DDSN at the time and operated by the Babcock Center.

While at Clusters, according to the appeals panel, Mims suffered bruises on his groin, a 28-pound weight loss and a beating by a staff member.

After the beating, according to court records, his mother asked that Mims be returned to her care. Instead, DDSN moved to have him judicially committed to the residential facility. A probate judge placed him in DDSN's care, according to the appeals court, "concluding he was profoundly mentally retarded with complex medical needs." 

Mims was moved to Kensington, where he was treated for “a swollen and bruised hand, elevated blood pressure, pain, and an incident where he was discovered to have a large number of ant bites,” according to the court’s ruling.

In 2003, the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services investigated Clusters, according to the court, and found the facility “failed to consistently provide the staffing or training necessary to protect residents.”

In 2005, while at Kensington, he was brought to the emergency room and given seven sutures to close a cut to the underside of his penis that went unexplained, the appeals court wrote.

That same year, CMS investigated Kensington after a resident there choked to death and terminated Kensington’s certification, according to the court.

Some of the residents were relocated, the panel wrote, but not Mims.

After learning of her son’s injury, Margaret Mims, who had released her son to DDSN’s care in 1999 because of illness, petitioned the probate court to be appointed guardian.  A judge agreed and she also was appointed conservator.

In 2007, she filed suit against DDSN, Butkus, its director at the time, and Lacy.  The suit was not served on the defendants but an amended complaint the next year was.

The agency objected to the case because the original suit was not served and it was dismissed. But the South Carolina Supreme Court disagreed and sent it back to the trial court.

Circuit Judge G. Thomas Cooper ultimately ruled in favor of the state after finding that the case should only focus on the beating, the ant bites and the penis injury. He also found that the majority of Mims’ causes of action were filed too late and the remaining allegations “either failed as a matter of law because they were insufficiently pled or because Mims failed to satisfy his summary judgment burden.”

But the appellate judges ruled this week that the official start day of the litigation was May 7, 2008, the date the amended complaint was filed, and that the statute of limitations for each of his causes of actions should be extended by five years.

The panel also reversed Cooper’s ruling that   among other things, Mims had failed to adequately prove Butkus and Lacy had violated his civil rights. 

“We also find the circuit court erred in finding Mims presented no evidence of widespread abusive conduct at DDSN facilities and no evidence that Respondents Lacy and Butkus knew of and ignored systemic problems,” the panel wrote.

The panel found that Cooper erred in dismissing claims of negligence, gross negligence and negligent supervision.

Mims alleged, the panel ruled, that the defendants “failed to provide proper supervision to protect Mims from assault, battery, sexual assault, and injury; failed to properly monitor Mims' condition and treatment needs after initiating involuntary commitment proceedings for him; failed to discharge Mims to the care of his mother; and obstructed the attempts of Mims' mother to establish the guardianship. We find Mims presented at least a scintilla of evidence to support these claims at summary judgment.”

However, the appeals panel ruled Cooper properly dismissed claims of violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

The case was heard by appellate judges John D. Geathers, Stephanie P. McDonald and D. Garrison Hill.