South Carolina Code 43-35-80. Action by Attorney General against person or facility for failure to exercise reasonable care; fine
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(A) Notwithstanding any regulatory or administrative penalty that may be assessed and in addition to a private civil cause of action that may be brought against a person or facility based on an action or failure to act that otherwise constitutes abuse, neglect, or exploitation under this chapter, the Attorney General, upon referral from the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program or the Vulnerable Adults Investigations Unit, may bring an action against a person who fails through pattern or practice to exercise reasonable care in hiring, training, or supervising facility personnel or in staffing or operating a facility, and this failure results in the commission of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or any other crime against a vulnerable adult in a facility. A person or facility which verifies good standing of the employee with the appropriate licensure or accrediting entity is rebuttably presumed to have acted reasonably regarding the hiring.
(B) In granting relief under this section, the court may assess a civil fine of not more than thirty thousand dollars or order injunctive relief, or both, and may order other relief as the court considers appropriate.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 43-35-80
- Abuse: means physical abuse or psychological abuse. See South Carolina Code 43-35-10
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Exploitation: means :
(a) causing or requiring a vulnerable adult to engage in activity or labor which is improper, unlawful, or against the reasonable and rational wishes of the vulnerable adult. See South Carolina Code 43-35-10 - Facility: means a nursing care facility, community residential care facility, a psychiatric hospital, or any residential program operated or contracted for operation by the Department of Mental Health or the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs. See South Carolina Code 43-35-10
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
- Neglect: means the failure or omission of a caregiver to provide the care, goods, or services necessary to maintain the health or safety of a vulnerable adult including, but not limited to, food, clothing, medicine, shelter, supervision, and medical services and the failure or omission has caused, or presents a substantial risk of causing, physical or mental injury to the vulnerable adult. See South Carolina Code 43-35-10
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Protective services: means those services whose objective is to protect a vulnerable adult from harm caused by the vulnerable adult or another. See South Carolina Code 43-35-10
- Vulnerable adult: means a person eighteen years of age or older who has a physical or mental condition which substantially impairs the person from adequately providing for his or her own care or protection. See South Carolina Code 43-35-10
(C) Nothing in this section may be construed to create a private cause of action against one who fails through pattern or practice to exercise reasonable care as provided for in subsection (A).
(D) For the purposes of this section ‘person’ means any natural person, corporation, joint venture, partnership, unincorporated association, or other business entity.
(E) To the extent fines collected pursuant to this section exceed the cost of litigation, these fines must be credited to the Adult Protective Services Emergency Fund and may be carried forward from one fiscal year to the next.