Does a defendant have an absolute duty to prevent the suicide of a resident of a residential care facility?

We do not mean to say defendant was a guarantor of decedent's health and well-being. Thus, we do not subscribe to plaintiffs' contention that [41 Cal.App.4th 1141] defendant had an absolute duty to prevent decedent's suicide. Instead, we focus on the fact that defendant had duties under the regulations which, if followed, may have prevented decedent's death. Decedent was a member of the class of persons designed to be protected by the regulations. Clearly, the regulations were designed to protect residents of residential care facilities for the elderly from, among other things, harm such as decedent experienced. Clearly plaintiff's loss resulted "from an occurrence of the nature which the [regulations were] designed to prevent." (Evid.Code, 669.) By taking decedent as a resident at its care facility, defendant agreed, for her benefit, to abide by the regulations. Thus, defendant had the duty to exercise the care called for in those regulations. Whether defendant violated the regulations and, if it did, whether such violations were the proximate cause of decedent's death, are questions yet to be resolved.

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b. Analysis Under Nally v. Grace Community Church