Q: Can you take a hospital to small claims court for a missing wedding ring?
My 78 year old husband was taken to the ER for Suicidal Ideation caused by his memory issues. They took his clothes , credit cards phone and wedding ring. They did an inventory. He was transferred to a psych hospital. When he checked out of the psych hospital the gave him his clothes, phone and credit card but he didn’t realize he didn’t have his ring until he got home. We called the psych hospital and they said they never got the inventory and didn’t know about the ring. They did not have a procedure in place to ensure patients get all of their belongs back. The nurse is the one the cut open the bag to give him his belonging. No one will call us back. What options do we have.
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- Tennessee
- (865) 637-3035
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A: If the ring was worth alot of money you can sue for conversion in General Sessions Court. You will need an attorney, witnesses to the ring's turnover and coming up missing, and its value. Name of hospital and its registered agent will have to be determined. Adding a suspected nurse as a defendant might help, but could cause other problems. If you get a judgment, collection required. Hospital will claim you need to file a malpractice action, which has many requirements even before filing suit. I doubt it is worth it.
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