July 8, 2025
A Florida state court has found that an addiction treatment center must face negligence claims in a suit from parents of an 18-year-old who died after leaving the facility, holding there are factual questions about whether the center had a duty to him and whether a breach of that duty caused his death.
In an order filed Sunday, Judge Maxine Cheesman of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit denied Caron of Florida Inc.’s bid for summary judgment in the suit filed by Denise and Francis Mann, holding the couple’s expert witness testimony should go in front of a factfinder.
According to the opinion, Nathan F. Mann was admitted to Caron’s Florida facility, Caron Renaissance, on June 15, 2020, after completing an earlier course at another facility in Pennsylvania, where he and his parents lived.
On Sept. 12 of that year, Nathan Mann left or “eloped” from the facility without his cell phone or any money, and was hit by a train and killed two days later, according to the order, which says an autopsy showed the presence of alcohol, cocaine and Dextromethorphan in his system, though this is disputed by the parties.
Caron argued in seeking summary judgment that it owed no duty to Nathan Mann, as he left the facility as an 18-year-old adult, and that its obligation extended only to active patients. As such, Caron asserted, the facility did not place him in the “zone of risk” that led to his death.
Judge Cheesman disagreed, however, saying the Manns’ allegation is not that the facility breached a duty to prevent their son from leaving, but rather that it breached the standard of care for a treatment facility meant to prevent a risk of elopement and death.
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Leslie Kroeger of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, representing the family, added, “We appreciate the court’s thoughtful review of the case and its finding that Caron owed Nathan a duty of care. The evidence highlighting Caron’s negligence in this case is well-documented and egregious. I think a jury will agree that instead of helping Nathan get better in order to navigate the next step of a promising life, they caused him harm, which tragically ended in his untimely death.”
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The Manns are represented by Rachael Flanagan, Leslie M. Kroger and Takisha Richardson of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, and Susan Ramsey and Ryan P. Ingraham of McLaughlin & Stern PLLC.
Read Fla. Addiction Center Must Face Trial in Teen Death Suit.