A 69-year-old man moved between four hospitals and one New Jersey facility in 2018, then died. Years later, the fight is over whether CareOne at Evesham can say its own label for his stay keeps residents’ rights claims out of court.
The short version
The court didn’t decide whether CareOne did anything wrong. Nope siree! It decided instead that the record could not yet say what kind of facility CareOne was.
- Francis Eagin III spent 67 days at CareOne at Evesham across two 2018 admissions. He died in a hospital on November 18, 2018, the day after leaving.
- His estate and son sued, including under New Jersey’s Nursing Home Responsibilities and Residents’ Rights Act (NHA). That law allows punitive damages and attorney’s fees.
- CareOne argued the NHA did not apply because Eagin got “short-term subacute rehabilitation,” not long-term care. A trial judge agreed and dismissed the NHA claims.
- In February 2024 the Appellate Division vacated that dismissal and ordered limited new discovery. It affirmed the dismissal of punitive damages.
- Update: in August 2026 a published Appellate Division opinion in a different CareOne case rejected the same short-term-rehab argument. We found no public ruling yet on Eagin’s remand.
Four hospitals, two stays, one question
Eagin, 69, was admitted to Cooper University Hospital on June 15, 2018 for abdominal pain and urinary retention. According to the plaintiffs’ expert, he also had Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, an above-the-knee amputation, a chronic catheter, and a pressure-type wound on his buttocks.
On August 11 he arrived at CareOne at Evesham for “further treatment and rehabilitation.” He was fed through a nasogastric tube, could not walk, and needed a mechanical lift to reach a wheelchair. His son twice asked for hospital transfers: once for a second opinion in July, and again in October after another fever.
- June 15, 2018Admitted to Cooper University Hospital.
- July 2Moved to a second hospital at his son’s request; treated for persistent fevers.
- August 11Admitted to CareOne at Evesham.
- October 9Sent to a third hospital after a fever; diagnosed with wounds and sepsis secondary to a urinary tract infection.
- November 9Returned to CareOne “in stable condition.” The expert noted his wounds that day.
- November 17 and 18Admitted to a fourth hospital with fever and elevated white blood cell count. He died the next day.
The opinion does not state a cause of death, and it does not say what care failures the plaintiffs allege. Those questions were not before the appeals court. What was before it is narrower and more consequential for anyone who enters such a facility after a hospital stay.
The fight over one word
The NHA gives residents of a “nursing home” enforceable rights, including a right to a safe and decent living environment and respectful care. A resident whose rights are violated can sue for actual and punitive damages and recover attorney’s fees. The statute defines a nursing home as an institution providing “extended” care on a “continuing basis.”
CareOne’s license was not in dispute: it was a “Long Term Care Facility.” The plaintiffs said that alone makes it a nursing home, pointing to state regulations that call such facilities “commonly known as nursing homes.” CareOne said Eagin’s stay was short-term subacute rehabilitation, so the law never applied.
“The more vexing issue concerns the nature of CareOne’s facility.”Appellate Division, Estate of Eagin v. CareOne at Evesham
The court sided with neither argument outright. It said the statute’s definition turns on the institution, not its license, and it was not persuaded that the regulation’s “commonly known as nursing homes” language settles the point. But it also found the record too thin to rule for CareOne.
What the record did and did not contain
- No written notice of NHA rights, no proof of minimum nursing home staffing, and no admission agreement for Eagin. The court said their absence tends to suggest CareOne was not operating as a nursing home.
- No evidence that the Department of Health issued a certificate of need to establish a nursing home, although CareOne’s license authorized operating one.
- No clear answer on where in the facility Eagin stayed, whether his unit was separate, or whether CareOne’s whole facility ran as short-term subacute units. Eagin’s November 9 admission form was not in the record.
- Counsel said at oral argument the building has 144 beds. The court did not consider that, because it was unclear whether the trial judge ever saw it.
Two accounts of his care
CareOne said Eagin was in short-term rehab, that several physicians and specialists were closely involved in his care, and that plaintiffs offered no contrary evidence.
Eagin’s son testified he visited nearly every day, saw a doctor “probably twice,” and found that nurses came in only “every so often.” The court called the parties’ dispute over his level of care unresolved.
The son’s testimony also cut against the plaintiffs. He did not know whether the stay was meant to be short or long, but said the goal was to get his father home. The court said that lay testimony tends to support CareOne’s position.
What the court actually ordered
Dismissed by the trial judge on June 30, 2023; reconsideration denied August 25, 2023. Appellate Division: vacated. Discovery reopened on the NHA definition, with timing left to the trial judge.
Dismissed by the trial judge for lack of a prima facie case. Plaintiffs did not seek reconsideration or timely leave to appeal. Appellate Division: affirmed.
The trial judge let plaintiffs argue that violations of federal and state regulations are evidence of negligence. That part was not disturbed.
The panel added a footnote worth reading closely: it formed no opinion on whether CareOne was properly or improperly operating its facility. Under an earlier decision it cited, that is a question for the Department of Health, not a judge or jury.
2026 update: the same argument lost in a published opinion
On August 24, 2026 the Appellate Division approved for publication Estate of Renee Sahar v. 301 Union Street, LLC d/b/a Care One at Wellington. It involves a different facility and patient, but the same defense: that a short-term rehabilitation stay falls outside the NHA. The court rejected it and affirmed.
- “Extended” means a long stay, not a permanent one. Sahar stayed 35 days with no set discharge date, which the court said satisfies the statute.
- “Subacute unit” is a hospital term. The court read state law to define subacute care units as units inside hospitals, with a maximum stay of eight days. Nothing showed Care One was licensed as one.
- The Department of Health weighed in. An April 18, 2024 guidance, two months after Eagin, interpreted “resident” in long-term care facility rules to include people receiving subacute care.
Sources: Eagin and Sahar opinions. The 8-day limit applies to hospital-based units as the Sahar court read the statute; whether any CareOne unit qualified was not decided in Eagin.
Sahar does not decide Eagin. It concerns a different facility, and the Eagin remand turns on its own record. But a published opinion binds trial courts in a way Eagin does not, and it answers in CareOne’s disfavor the very argument Eagin left open. How much that matters on remand is an inference, not a ruling.
Who carries the risk
The label matters because the NHA is how residents enforce basic dignity and safety rights, and fee-shifting makes those claims affordable to bring. In Sahar, the attorney’s fees and costs added about $276,000 to the judgment. If a facility can describe a patient’s stay as “rehab” and avoid the statute, the protection can disappear for exactly the people recovering from a hospital stay.
What Eagin’s case shows about harm is limited. The documented facts are serious illness, repeated hospitalizations, wounds noted on return, and a death. The opinion does not link any of them to CareOne’s conduct.
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