Safeguarding Property
In law school one of the more esoteric doctrines of property law -- the
bailment -- gets a lot of attention. Cases involving bailments for hire are distinguished from other bailments. The effects of disclaimers are studied. In the end, the bottom line is this: when someone delivers to another a piece of property for safekeeping, the common law requires him to return it when requested, in the same condition it was given to him.
In the nursing home setting most admission agreements have standard language that disclaims any intent on the part of the facility to be a "bailee" of goods. This language is important, but can be circumvented by individual employees if they act on their own for the benefit of patients.
Consider Mrs. Jones who has a big fluffy quilt on her bed that is a family heirloom. Mrs. Jones family rarely visits, and a nurse takes it upon herself to wash the quilt for her. In the washing process, the quilt is damaged. The employee became a "bailee" because she was given a "chattel" or piece of property to care for. She had a duty of care and duty to return the goods. Her failure to be careful washing the quilt could make her liable for the damage. While the facility might still claim that it was not a bailee of the goods, it could probably not escape liability for negligent supervisor or vicarious liability.
There is another very critical reason that no employee of a skilled nursing facility should ever accept property from any resident for any reason -- even a benign one like washing a blanket - and that reason is found in the criminal law. Nothing prevents a resident from claiming that the goods were stolen when they fail to remember entrusting a worker to take care of the goods. Family members who were not present when the resident entrusted the goods may believe that the item was stolen. Why would they believe this?
Consider the case of Micah O. Shatswell, a Missouri nursing home employee who took a painting from a Springfield, Missouri nursing home thinking it might be worth as much as $100. When he sold it online for $175,000, he was stunned that the painting was so valuable. One assumes he was equally stunned when the FBI arrested him and charged him with interstate transportation of stolen goods.
This raises the issue of whether residents should be allowed to bring high-value items with them to the skilled nursing facility. That should be permitted only where the facility has in writing an insurance agreement that covers the high-value items and indemnifies the facility against any loss for those goods in the event of theft, fire or accident.