The Pandemic
Aftershock: Senior
Living Litigation in the Wake of COVID-19
Earlier this year, the New York Times published an article1 detailing a
$53 million settlement agreed to between an east coast state and
the families of the residents who lived in two state-run senior living
facilities during the initial COVID-19 outbreak in spring 2020. At the
time, the settlement was the first of its kind nationwide for COVID-19
litigation. What made the settlement so high, besides a large
number of claimants? The issue of gross negligence. In this case,
staff were allegedly told not to wear masks prior to April 2020 to
avoid scaring residents, and were banned from taking masks out of
facility supplies. Plaintiffs alleged COVID-19 positive residents were
congregating with healthy residents without protective equipment.
While the settlement may have been the first of its kind, there are
similar lawsuits pending nationwide against private and public
nursing homes. Plaintiff’s lawyers are now using the size and scope
of the settlement as an outline for structuring future cases and
multi-party settlements.
