White Plains, New York, partners Lori Semlies and Katherine McCrink and Steven V. DeBraccio (Associate-White Plains, NY)  ) received an affirmance from the First Department, granting our motion for summary judgment, seeking dismissal of claims for gross negligence and punitive damages against our client nursing home. The case involved a resident who, over a three-year time period (and a seven-year admission) sustained approximately 24 falls at our client’s nursing home. The plaintiff sued our client for negligence, the Public Health Law, and, as relevant to the appeal, gross negligence and punitive damages. Lori, Katherine, and Steven moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s claims for gross negligence and punitive damages, arguing that, in light of the myriad of progressively increasing fall protection protocols afforded to decedent, including close supervision and placement at the nursing station, there was no evidence of a willful disregard of the decedent’s rights, any conduct that rose to the level of gross negligence, or, as the First Department put it, “willful conduct that evidences a high degree of moral culpability so as to support a claim for punitive damages.”  The trial court agreed, and on appeal, the First Department affirmed the dismissal.