GALVESTON - Riverside General Hospital Inc.'s motion for leave to designate responsible third party in a personal injury lawsuit against it was recently approved.
Galveston County 10th District Court Judge David Garner signed an order establishing Michael Westover, a patient at RGH's Texas City facility, as the aforementioned responsible third party on March 1.
RGH is a defendant - along with Vickie-PHP LLC and Richard Taylor Jr. - in Hitchcock resident Rebecca Catherine Fisher's suit alleging assault on the job.
According to the original petition filed Sept. 30, 2011, the respondents failed to prevent Westover from reportedly attacking Fisher in the kitchen last July 25.
The suit asserts the defendants knew about the patient's violent nature, and that "nothing [Fisher] did nor failed to do caused, or in any way contributed to cause, the occurrence in question."
It does not implicate the patient as a defendant, but argues the respondents "failed to adequately supervise and train its employees, including management level employees, who had knowledge before this incident happened of [the patient's] violent nature."
The three-page motion, entered Feb. 7, insists Westover's "criminal acts caused or contributed to the plaintiff's alleged injuries."
The Hudgins Law Firm is representing the defendant.
Case No. 11-cv-1554