Monteagudo v. Gardens of Belvidere, LLC

2023 IL App (1st) 220045

221 N.E.3d 1186

468 Ill.Dec. 964

Nidia C. MONTEAGUDO, as Independent Administrator of the Estate of Raul Monteagudo Garza, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.The GARDENS OF BELVIDERE, LLC d/b/a Park Place of Belvidere ; AA Healthcare Management, LLC ; Thomas L. Michalsen, D.O.; and Physician Associates, Ltd. d/b/a Cherry Valley Medical Clinic, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 1-22-0045

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, FIFTH DIVISION.

Filed April 28, 2023

Lynn M. Reid, David M. Macksey, and Ava L. Caffarini, of Johnson & Bell, Ltd., and Karen Kies DeGrand and Monica L. Smit, of Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC, both of Chicago, and J. Daniel Porter and Lisa R. Munch, of Langhenry, Gillen, Lundquist & Johnson, LLC, of Rockford, for appellants.

Brian K. Hetzer, of Duncan Law Group, LLC, of Chicago, for appellee.

OPINION

JUSTICE NAVARRO delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 Plaintiff, Nidia C. Monteagudo, as Independent Administrator of the Estate of Raul Monteagudo Garza, deceased, filed an action based on negligence, wrongful death, and violations of the Nursing Home Care Act in the circuit court of Cook County against defendants, The Gardens of Belvidere, LLC, doing business as Park Place of Belvidere (Park Place); AA Healthcare Management, LLC, (AA Healthcare); Thomas L. Michalsen, D.O.; and Physician Associates, Ltd., doing business as Cherry Valley Medical Clinic (Cherry Valley). Plaintiff's action was based on medical care and treatment her father, the decedent, received at Park Place, a long-term care facility located in Boone County, Illinois. The circuit court denied defendants’ joint motion to transfer the case to Boone County under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 187 (eff. Jan. 1, 2018) and the doctrine of forum non conveniens. Defendants subsequently filed in this court a petition for leave to appeal under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 306(a)(2) (eff. Oct. 1, 2020), which this court granted.

¶ 2 Defendants contend that the circuit court abused its discretion when it denied their motion to transfer the case to Boone County because it gave undue deference to plaintiff's choice of forum where neither plaintiff resides nor the alleged negligence or injury occurred. Defendants also contend that the trial court misapprehended the public and private interest factors and that the factors strongly weigh in favor of transferring the case from Cook County to Boone County. We reverse and remand with directions.

¶ 3 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 4 A. Plaintiff's Complaint

¶ 5 Plaintiff's complaint is based on allegations that defendants engaged in negligent acts or omissions that resulted in the decedent's death. She alleged claims based on negligence, wrongful death, and violations of the Nursing Home Care Act. Plaintiff alleged that the decedent was a resident of Park Place, a long-term care facility, and that on December 23, 2019, the decedent had a critically high level of digoxin in his system, which placed him at a risk for cardiac complications. On December 27, 2019, the decedent's heart rate dropped below the baseline, after which he was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with a digoxin overdose, resulting in a junctional heart rhythm. The decedent died on January 2, 2020. Plaintiff alleged that the nursing staff at Park Place and Dr. Michalsen, his primary care physician at Park Place, overprescribed digoxin. She alleged that the nursing staff and Dr. Michalsen should have known that the decedent had a critically high level of digoxin in his system and that they failed to, among other things, significantly lower the digoxin doses, recheck the digoxin levels, and properly monitor his cardiac function. As a result, the decedent had a supratherapeutic level of digoxin, which caused junctional heart rhythm and death.

¶ 6 Plaintiff further alleged as follows. Plaintiff and the decedent were residents of Belvidere, Boone County. Park Place and its principal place of business were located in Belvidere, Boone County. Defendant AA Healthcare was the registered agent and management company for Park Place and was located in the Village of Skokie, in Cook County. Dr. Michalsen was a resident of Rockford, Illinois, in Winnebago County. Dr. Michalsen was an actual and/or apparent agent and/or employee of defendant Cherry Valley, which had its principal place of business in Rockford, Illinois, in Winnebago County.

¶ 7 B. Defendants’ Joint Motion to Transfer Venue

¶ 8 Defendants filed a joint motion to transfer venue pursuant to Rule 187 and the doctrine of forum non conveniens. Defendants contended that plaintiff's complaint did not include any facts that tied her claims to Cook County. Defendants argued that plaintiff's choice of forum in Cook County was entitled to less deference because plaintiff did not live there and the injury did not occur there. Defendants contended that the private interest factors weighed in favor of transferring the case to Boone County.

¶ 9 Defendants asserted that the evidence was more easily available in Boone County and there were no practical problems posed by having the case heard there. Defendants stated that plaintiff and the decedent's family members resided in Boone County and defendants were located in Boone and Winnebago Counties. They argued that the medical care and alleged injury at issue occurred at defendant Park Place, located in Boone County and 1.8 miles from the Boone County courthouse, and that the decedent was subsequently transferred to Swedish American Hospital, located in Winnebago County. Defendants asserted that defendants Dr. Michalsen and Cherry Valley were residents of Rockford, in Winnebago County. Defendants explained that five employees of Park Place who provided care to the decedent and may be called as witnesses resided in Boone County and that Park Place's administrator resided in McHenry County, which is contiguous to Boone County. The social worker and physician assistant involved in the decedent's care as well as the Director of Nursing at Park Place resided in Winnebago County.

¶ 10 To support their argument, defendants attached to their motion affidavits from four employees of Park Place who provided care to the decedent at Park Place, including a staff nurse, a licensed practical nurse, and two registered nurses.¹ These employees live in Boone County and are located between 1.2 and 9.6 miles from the Boone County courthouse and between 76.2 and 87 miles from the Daley Center in Cook County. They each stated that it would be inconvenient if the case were to proceed to trial in Cook County. Defendants also attached an affidavit from Dr. Michalsen, in which he asserted that he lived in Winnebago County, 6.3 miles from the Boone County courthouse, and it would be inconvenient for him to attend trial in Cook County. He also stated that he was the president of his medical practice, Cherry Valley, which was located 8.1 miles from the Boone County Courthouse and 78.5 miles from the Cook County courthouse, and that defending the case in Cook County would be a significant hardship to his patients in his practice of medicine as a sole practitioner. Defendants also attached an affidavit from the social worker involved in the decedent's care, who averred she lived in Winnebago County, 14.3 miles from the Boone County courthouse and 89.5 miles from the Daley Center. Defendants attached an affidavit from Park Place's administrator, who averred she lived in McHenry County, 26.1 miles from the Boone County courthouse and 65.1 miles from the Daley Center. Both the social worker and administrator stated it would be inconvenient for them if the trial was held in Cook County.

¶ 11 Defendants further asserted that Swedish American Hospital was located in Winnebago County, 12.4 miles from the Boone County courthouse. The four treating physicians at Swedish American Hospital resided in Winnebago County and their workplace addresses were located between 9.4 and 12.7 miles from the Boone County courthouse and between 84.5 and 87.4 miles away from the Daley Center in Cook County. DaVita Dialysis, the dialysis center where the decedent received care, was located in Boone County, 1.6 miles from the Boone County Courthouse and 73.5 miles from the Daley Center in Cook County. Defendants attached to their motion printouts from Google Maps to support their assertions with respect to these distances.

¶ 12 As for the public interest factors, defendants argued that the citizens of Boone County had a greater interest in adjudicating the case involving the care received by a Boone County resident, a nursing home located in Boone County, and a physician located in neighboring Winnebago County. Defendants argued that it would be unfair to impose jury duty or the cost of litigating this case on the Cook County residents or courts because there were no ties to Cook County. Defendants also argued that the Cook County courts were substantially busier than the Boone County courts and litigating this case in Boone County would impose far less of a burden than it would on Cook County. They asserted that in the third quarter of 2020, the Law Division in Cook County had 26,023 cases pending, while the same division in Boone County had 79. Defendants also asserted that between 2019 and 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in 4779 cases in Cook County, but that Boone County remained stable. To support its arguments, defendants attached to their motion reports of the Illinois civil and domestic relations caseload statistics by county for the third quarters in 2019 and 2020.

¶ 13 C. Plaintiff's Response

¶ 14 Plaintiff argued that AA Healthcare was the management company for Park Place and was located in Cook County. Plaintiff asserted that AA Healthcare managed nursing homes throughout Cook County and its activities and involvement with Park Place was the primary reason for keeping the case in Cook County. Plaintiff asserted that AA Healthcare objected to every question...