Houston Chronicle, May 08, 1998, Friday; SECTION A, Pg. 42

BYLINE: RON NISSIMOV

A jury ordered a Conroe nursing home Thursday to pay $ 28.3 million to
the daughter of a 78-year-old man who allegedly died because of the
home's negligence.

Recently enacted tort-reform laws will significantly reduce the state
district court verdict, but the two sides differed on how much. Defense
attorneys said the final amount will be about $ 4 million; plaintiff's
attorneys say it will be at least $ 15 million. Woodland Manor Nursing
Home was investigated by Conroe police in 1996 after it was heavily
fined by the state for allowing conditions that might have contributed
to the deaths of two other people.

The company that owns the home, Texas Health Enterprises of Denton, is
one of the largest nursing home providers in the state, with about 100
facilities. It has lost several lawsuits recently, including a $ 3.3
million judgment in March to the parents of mentally ill patient who
wandered out of a Texas City nursing home in 1995 and died in the heat.

The company's owner, Peter "Woody" Kern, was featured in a September
1997 Wall Street Journal article that described his run-ins with nursing
home regulators throughout the country.

State District Judge Jane Bland blocked attempts by plaintiff attorneys
to introduce this article as evidence.

"What the jury told me is they were mad at our corporate president, they
thought he should have had more individual interaction with his
corporate facilities," said defense attorney Lori Proctor.

She said testimony showed the nursing home was not responsible for the
1994 death of Liniel Barnett. She said he died when his portal vein was
inadvertently cut by a surgeon performing an operation for liver damage.

Proctor said the jury awarded only $ 1 for Barnett's death. It also
awarded $ 260,000 for medical expenses, $ 3 million to Barnett's
daughter Reasa Burton for pain and suffering and $ 25 million in
punitive damages.

She said the jury imposed the large punitive award because of the
improper admission of evidence that the facility had been cited by the
state. She said the Legislature did not intend to allow such state
inspections to be used in lawsuits.

But James Doyle, who represented Burton, said the jury had blamed the
nursing home for Barnett's death. He said testimony showed Barnett was
not properly fed when he was admitted for a temporary stay in 1993 for a
balance disorder.

As a result, an already-thin Barnett lost about 10 pounds and had to be
fed through a tube. Doyle said nursing home staff improperly used the
tube, causing internal problems that led to the surgery in which he
died.

Proctor, however, said Barnett had a history of anorexia and refused to
eat more than "two bites a meal." She said he had caused the internal
damage himself, by pulling on his feeding tube.

Doyle said Woodland Manor had been cited for various problems five times
from 1991 to 1995.

Proctor said the state investigates "anytime someone complains," and
that Woodland Manor had complied with all state recommendations.

Proctor said state law now limits punitive damages to four times the
amount awarded as medical expenses, in this case $ 260,000. Doyle said
they can be up to four times as much as actual damages, which totaled $
3.26 million.

She said the company does not have the money to pay a $ 4 million final
judgment. But Doyle said Kern could afford at least $ 15 million.

He said the high punitive damage award showed the jury wanted to send a
message to Kern that it "didn't want that company to be able to conduct
business in the state."