Relatives of a man who took his own life while receiving treatment at a Malibu rehabilitation center have reached a settlement in their wrongful death case, in which they contended their loved one was prematurely taken off suicide watch.
The plaintiffs in the Santa Monica Superior Court lawsuit are the widow and two daughters, ages 9 and 2, of the 38-year-old decedent, who used bed sheets and a restroom door to hang himself on Aug. 27, 2024, at age 38 at Passages Malibu, according to the complaint.
On Tuesday, the plaintiffs’ attorneys filed court papers with Judge Lisa Sepe-Wiesenfeld notifying her of an “unconditional” resolution of the case. No terms were divulged.
In their previous court papers, Passages Malibu lawyers denied the lawsuit’s allegations and cited multiple defenses, including that the decedent and the plaintiffs were “careless, reckless and/or negligent in and about the matters and things alleged in the complaint.”
According to the suit filed last May 13, the man had previously received treatment at Passages Malibu and returned for care due to ongoing struggles with addiction and mental health. At the time the decedent was in a severely vulnerable state and presented a known risk of self-harm, including suicidal ideation, according to the complaint, which further states that the man was put on suicide watch.
“Despite the clear risk of harm, defendants breached these duties in multiple respects,” the suit stated. “They prematurely and negligently removed (the man) from suicide watch without proper psychiatric evaluation or adequate documentation supporting the change in risk level. They failed to reassess his mental status or develop an individualized care plan to address his continued suicide risk.”
The man was left unsupervised for a prolonged period despite his recent removal from suicide watch and his well-documented mental health history and the staff did not intervene in time to prevent him from taking his own life, the suit further alleged.