Are Nurse Case Management Expenses Recoverable as Cure? Wrong Motion = No Relief
Hussein Al Qari v. American Steamship Company, Case No. 21-cv-10650, 2023 WL 1437696, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16895 * (E.D. Mi. Feb. 1, 2023).
The plaintiff was employed as a steward by American Steamship Company and alleged he was injured while employed as a seaman on M/V H. Lee White.1 He filed suit in federal district court under the Jones Act, for alleged unseaworthiness of the vessel and for maintenance and cure as well as alleging intentional failure to provide cure.2 Counsel for the claimant filed a Motion to present evidence at trial to recover the costs of nurse case management expenses and punitive damages for failure to pay such expenses.
After the accident, the employer engaged the services of a professional nurse case manager to coordinate medical care.3 Counsel wrote a letter to the nurse case manager informing her not to contact his client and that another nurse case manager would handle the matter.4 American Steamship’s attorney responded that nurse care management expenses do not constitute medical care and is not an element of cure which can be recovered and invited plaintiff’s counsel to provide legal support that these expenses are cure.5
The judge expressed confusion about the type of relief sought with the motion as the attorney stated he was not seeking summary judgment on the issue but was "asking that the Court make a legal determination that nurse case manager services are a part of cure….”6 Accordingly, the court denied the motion as premature or procedurally improper.7
1 He alleged he was carrying coffee grounds when he slipped down stairs. 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16895 at *1.
2 Id. at *2.
3 Id. at *2-*3.
4 Id.
5 Id. at *4.
6 Id. at *8-9.
7 Id. at *11.
