The lawyer representing the estate of Caroline Ashworth argued before the Connecticut Supreme Court that the estate should be allowed to pursue negligence claims against the hospital that released her ex-boyfriend Michael Mollow from psychiatric care a day before he shot and killed her then turned the gun on himself.
Carey B. Reilly of Bridgeport-based Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder argued that the lawsuit’s allegations fall under “ordinary negligence” claims and not claims of medical malpractice.
The argument, held at the Connecticut Supreme Court in Hartford Thursday, centered on a judge’s ruling in the civil proceedings that Reilly’s allegations against SVMC Holdings Inc., which owns St. Vincent’s Medical Center, fall under medical malpractice claims and that they cannot be pursued given that Ashworth was never a patient at the hospital. The ruling was in response to a motion filed by attorneys representing the hospital looking to strike the accusations lodged against St. Vincent’s, court papers show.
“This is a unique situation in our case,” Reilly told the Supreme Court justices.
Reilly argued that the judge handling the civil proceedings never evaluated the complaint as potentially falling under an ordinary negligence claim. In a 25-page memorandum explaining his decision, Reilly said Judge Daniel Klau only devoted a single paragraph to a claim of ordinary negligence.
Attorney Eric Del Pozo of Hartford-based Shipman and Goodwin argued on behalf of St. Vincent’s that the accusations would require testimony from an expert witness in a civil trial, which he said shows that the allegations fall under medical malpractice. Though they are labeled throughout the lawsuit as ordinary negligence claims, Del Pozo argued that the “substance” of the accusations clearly fall under medical malpractice.
According to the lawsuit, Ashworth was 18 when she met Mollow, a 57-year-old Branford dentist, in late 2019 or early 2020. Throughout their three-year relationship, the complaint alleges, he used ownership of the vehicle she drove and her cell phone plan to control her, restricting her ability to get around and communicate with others. He also stopped paying her rent at one point before she moved in with him.
Caroline Ashworth was 18 years old when she met Michael Morrow. The two dated for two years before he fatally shot her.
According to the complaint filed by Ashworth’s estate, Ashworth called police on Aug. 9, 2022, to report a domestic incident and told officers that Mollow had previously threatened to shoot her and had assaulted her. She also alleged that he had access to unsecured firearms and that he confronted her that day over his jealousy that she had socialized with another man the previous evening.
Mollow called police five days later and, among other things, allegedly admitted that he had tracked Ashworth using GPS and had taken her cell phone away from her during a physical struggle, according to the complaint. The next day, Mollow allegedly called police and said Ashworth had stolen a vehicle which he had convinced her to co-sign for after she traded in her previous vehicle.
Following multiple domestic violence calls to police, Ashworth moved out of Mollow’s home on Aug. 22, 2022, and went to Alabama to visit family. According to the lawsuit, Mollow became so distraught over Ashworth leaving he checked himself into Midstate Medical Center the next day and told staff he was “totally obsessed” with her, could not sleep and had “homicidal ideations” about killing her. He also allegedly acknowledged having a pistol permit and owning multiple guns and said he had been mixing alcohol with Xanax he had gotten “off the street,” the lawsuit alleges.
The hospital admitted Mollow under a 15-day physician’s emergency certificate and notified police of his statements, the complaint said. The next day, he was transferred to St. Vincent’s psychiatric facility, which had access to the intake records from Midstate, Reilly said Thursday.
Two days after being sent to St. Vincent’s, Mollow was discharged. He was instructed to follow up with his primary care doctor and to see a social worker five days later, according to the lawsuit.
In the weeks leading up to her death, Caroline Ashworth called 911 fearing for her life, afraid that Mike Mollow was going to hurt her, records show.
The lawsuit alleges staff at St. Vincent’s “prematurely” discharged Mollow despite the 15-day PEC not expiring and his willingness to stay. The civil complaint also contends that the hospital failed to notify Ashworth or properly treat Mollow.
A day after leaving the hospital, Mollow allegedly stalked Ashworth to a condo complex in Wethersfield shortly before 9:30 p.m., the lawsuit said. He confronted her in a pickup truck in the parking lot where he shot her three times, killing her, the complaint states. Mollow then turned the gun on himself and died by suicide, according to the lawsuit.
During the oral arguments, Justice William Bright, Jr. questioned how Reilly could prove in a civil trial that the hospital staff mistreated Mollow without an expert witness. He also acknowledged that the justices would have to look at all the counts that were stricken from the complaint by Klau’s ruling and that, if even one of them is found to not fall under medical malpractice, the court could find that Klau erred.
“I wouldn’t call any of them medical malpractice claims,” Reilly said
Reilly also disputed the argument that if her lawsuit needed testimony from an expert witness, that would mean it falls under medical malpractice. No court has previously said that, she argued.
“This is not a medical malpractice claim,” Reilly said.
Acknowledging the tragedy of the situation, Del Pozo said previous case law supports his argument that the hospital had no “duty to warn” Ashworth that Mollow had been released.
“We don’t think the law supports it now,” Del Pozo said.
Del Pozo said the mandates in place that stipulate who can be notified under confidentiality laws when a psychiatric patient is discharged are very clear.
“Unfortunately, however tragic, Ms. Ashworth was not on the list,” Del Pozo said.
Warning Ashworth, Del Pozo said, would have required the clinician who made the decision to release Mollow to question their own judgement that he no longer met the “commitment criteria.”
Del Pozo also said there are no accusations in the lawsuit alleging Mollow made any homicidal statements once he was at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, which is owned by Hartford HealthCare, the same company that owns Midstate. He also asserted that Ashworth “knew everything” that the lawsuit contends hospital staff “should have told her.”
The Supreme Court could take anywhere from six months to a year to make a ruling.
The lawsuit filed by Reilly on behalf of Ashworth’s mother remains pending. Jury selection is expected to begin in December, court records show.
In an unusual move, that civil complaint, which also names the Branford Police Department and Mollow’s estate as defendants, has been consolidated with a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Mollow’s estate against Branford police and SVMC Holdings.
The wrongful death lawsuits allege that police and hospital staff mishandled multiple things.
The lawsuit Reilly filed alleges that police were contacted by staff at Midstate Medical Center and told of Mollow’s statements about wanting to kill Ashworth. The complaint alleges an officer never made contact with Ashworth, blaming her voicemail not being set up, and marked the case as “inactive” less than 1 ½ hours after receiving the call from the hospital.
The lawsuit also contends that police failed to make any arrests or seek a risk warrant to seize Mollow’s firearms. An internal investigation into the officer who handled the hospital complaint and his supervisor allegedly found that their conduct fell “below the expected standard of performance” for an officer, the lawsuit states.
