CT POST
Daniel Tepfer
BRIDGEPORT — Silver Hill Hospital has agreed to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement to the family of an investment banker who died by suicide while being treated at the facility.
The New Canaan private mental health and rehab facility, known for treating celebrities such as Billy Joel, Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson, agreed to settle a lawsuit brought in state Superior Court in Bridgeport by the family of Leo Civitillo, the global head of capital markets at Morgan Stanley, as the case was about to go to trial on Friday.
Details of the settlement were not disclosed although it is believed to have exceeded several million dollars.
“We have no comment as we are bound by a confidentiality agreement,” said attorney Joel Faxon, who represents the Civitillo family.
He previously offered to settle the case for $14 million, according to court documents.
The 43-year-old Civitillo was found dead in his room in the transitional center of the hospital in February 2018. Civitillo lived in Redding at the time of this death. His family has since moved to Greenwich.
A subsequent investigation by local police and the state Department of Public Health determined Civitillo died from an overdose of chloroquine, a substance found in malaria pills. The medical examiner determined his death was a suicide.
According to the lawsuit, on Jan. 22, 2018, Civitillo was admitted to Silver Hill Hospital following an attempted suicide. He was subsequently diagnosed as psychotic with delusional thinking, documents show.
During the time he was in the hospital’s care, the suit states Civitillo undertook multiple efforts to plan out another suicide attempt, including using a hospital-issued tablet to search the internet for ways to kill himself without the manner of his death being detected.
The suit states that hospital staff had been alerted by Civitillo’s wife, Christa Civitillo, that her husband had ordered a pill crusher from Amazon.
The suit also alleges that Civitillo had an associate bring him Avloclor, a brand of chloroquine, from England and smuggle it into the hospital. However, no arrest was ever made.
“Realizing the looming threat Leo posed to himself, staff prevailed on Leo’s physicians not to allow visitors, and instead to place Leo in a lockdown condition approximating an involuntary commitment. But the defendants ignored these red flags, and even permitted Leo to have unsupervised contact with a last minute visitor, to whom at least two staff members objected, from whom he obtained the medication, Avloclor, generically known as chloroquine and the pill crusher his wife had warned he purchased,” the suit states.
The lawsuit claims hospital staff failed to properly supervise Civitillo or place him on a higher level of observation despite his suicidal inclination.
“The defendants failed to perform the required bed checks and other monitoring of Leo, and in fact falsified medical records claiming that nonexistent bed checks had been completed,” the suit states.
Clarification: This story and headline have been updated to reflect that Civitillo’s family now lives in Greenwich.
Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan settles lawsuit with CT family of banker who died by suicide
