NEWS IN BRIEF

$5.2 million awarded in nursing-home suit

A Faulkner County jury awarded the family of a Perry County woman $5.2 million in a suit against a Greenbrier nursing home.

Jurors delivered their verdict against Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation on Thursday, said Little Rock attorney R. Brannon Sloan of Dodds, Kidd & Ryan law firm. Sloan represented the family of 76-year-old Martha Crow-Bull of Houston, along with Tom Buchanan and Beth Burgess of the Law Offices of Tom Buchanan.

The jury unanimously found that Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation acted negligently and ruled 9-3 that it engaged in medical malpractice and violations of residents’ rights. It did not find that Greenbrier Nursing caused Bull’s death.

The nursing home failed to transfer the ailing Bull to the hospital on doctor’s orders, and she died April 7, 2008, 11 days after she was admitted.

Lyn Pruitt, a Mitchell Williams law firm partner who led the defense team, declined comment, citing a post-trial issue to be discussed Monday.

  • Brian Fanney

Riverboat set to take NLR maiden voyage

The Mark Twain riverboat will start plying the Arkansas River from its port in North Little Rock next Thursday, according to a spokesman for the DAM Riverboat Co.

The paddle-wheeler will be joined by the Patriot, a tugboat owned by the city.

Built in 1963, the 130-passenger Twain has been on the Ohio River of Cincinnati, according to Anita Ward, a co-owner of the Twain.

The 338-passenger Arkansas Queen stopped operating out of North Little Rock in January after failing to make enough money to pay its rent to the city for the six years of its operation.

The Arkansas Queen’s general manager, Roger Odell, accused the city of breaching its lease when it didn’t replace the Salty Parrot barge after the city owned barge sank into the river in March 2009 and was later sold for scrap.

Owners of DAM Riverboat are Dwayne Jones of White Hall; Mark Hunter, formerly a pilot of the Arkansas Queen; and Ward, who had been the Queen’s senior cruise director.

  • Jack Weatherly

State index hits high for 5th day in a row

For the fifth consecutive day, the Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, reached a 52-week high, peaking at 286.98 during trading Friday.

The index closed at 286.97, up 1.89 Friday.

Fourteen stocks advanced and two declined.

For the week, 13 stocks gained ground and three fell.

Acxiom rose 6.6 percent for the week and closed Friday matching its 52-week high.

Bank of the Ozarks finished up 6 percent for the week.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 31 on 05/18/2013

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