Bayird v. Floyd, No. 08-1099.
John Bayird, as administrator for the estate of his deceased mother, Mamie Elliott, filed a complaint against William Floyd and several Beverly entities related to Elliott’s care and treatment while she was a resident of a nursing home in Monticello. Floyd was the chief executive officer of Beverly during the relevant time period. He moved to dismiss the complaint against him for failure to state facts to establish his individual liability. The trial court considered information outside of the complaint and granted summary judgment to Floyd. The trial court then granted Rule 54(b) certification so that an appeal could be taken, even though the summary judgment was not a final order.
On appeal, Bayird argued that Floyd should be help personally liable because he enacted the corporate philosophy of emphasizing profits over care. The Arkansas Supreme Court noted that, under Arkansas law, an individual employed by the corporation can be liable only if it can be shown that the individual was personally involved in the events surrounding the injury. Bayird did not dispute that Floyd was not involved in any way with Elliott’s care and was not involved with the Monticello facility. Because Bayird’s allegation was only that Floyd was responsible for the overall corporate philosophy causing deficient staffing and supplied that resulted in harm to Elliott, the court upheld the grant of summary judgment.
