Sacramento jury awarded a verdict of $27 Million, including $23 million in punitive damages against Seattle-based Emeritus in the death of 81-year-old Joan Boice, finding management at the nation’s then largest operator of assisted-living residences responsible for elder abuse and neglect.
The lawsuit by the family of Joan Boice, who had advanced dementia, claimed Emeritus accepted her although she was physically too debilitated for the care that the facility provides. Then she was “left … at the mercy of a few unqualified, untrained, and overburdened caregivers, with predictable, and tragic, results.”
The verdict was one of the largest punitive damage awards in California $22,963,943.81. Jurors tacked on Boice’s age in pennies, because “they didn’t want Emeritus to forget her.”
During three months in the memory-care unit of Emeritus at Emerald Hills in Auburn, Cal. Boice developed several deep, necrotic pressure wounds. She died in February 2009, 10 weeks after being moved to a skilled nursing facility for hospice care.
Emeritus, acquired by Brookdale Senior Living, was the biggest provider of a type of senior housing that promised its elderly clientele some assistance in daily life without the intensive personal care of a nursing home. The average age of Emeritus residents was 84.
They paid an average $4,127 a month, producing company revenues of nearly $1.6 billion from more than 50,000 units mostly devoted to assisted living.
As a result of the Emeritus’s merger with Brookdale, Brookdale now operates over 1,100 facilities serving about 100,000 patients in 47 states.
An episode of Frontline which aired on July 30, 2013 documented the alleged neglect and physical abuses perpetrated on patients by employees of Emeritus.
Joan Boice’s case was not an isolated incident. And this Sacramento verdict was not the first time Emeritus had been sanctioned by courts or regulators over issues of understaffing or inadequate care. Among others:
In 2015, Emeritus Corp. agreed to pay $13 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of residents of assisted living communities alleging the company made misleading statements about its services, and defrauding them to pay for additional services they never actually receive. Show
And in Texas, Emeritus was hit with punitive damages almost as large in 2005, when a jury awarded $18 million for the wrongful death of another resident. Show
Mary Kasuba, Emeritus, Emerald Hills former resident care director in 2007, wrote a five-page letter to 10 top Emeritus executives and board members to say she faced “a huge shortage of staff.” She never heard back from any of them and later resigned.
In this new Insider Exclusive “Justice in America” Network TV Special, Joan Boice’s tragic story clearly demonstrates that reports of serious, physical, sexual and verbal abuse are “too numerous” among the nation’s nursing homes…
Which is why our news staff is visiting with Eric and Kathleen Boice, Joan’s children, and their lawyer, Lesley Clement at the Clement Law Group, on location in Sacramento, Calif , to go behind the headlines and see how Emeritus corporate management led by co-founder and former Chairman Dan Baty put ‘Profits before People’, intentionally ignoring his staff on the lack of quality care and adequate staffing, which resulted in one of America’s greatest scandals and frauds in the Nursing Home Assisted Living Industry.
Emeritus, carried out its fraudulent scheme to deceive families and their residents in multiple ways:
Their former CEO, Dan Baty even called this facility a ‘Shit Hole’
And repeatedly informed his management and staff that Emeritus had “No Barriers to Sales,” And all that mattered what was not quality of care, but Quantity of “Heads in the Beds,” and Once they were in the facility, then “Close the Back Door”, because they would NOT be leaving.
Lesley has earned the highest respect from citizens and lawyers alike…. as one of the best Trial lawyers In California to protect our elders.
She makes it her dedicated mission to get legitimate and truthful answers to what really happened to her clients in each case.
She believes that elders within our community deserve the utmost respect and that any individual who brings harm to an elderly person should be held accountable.
She uses the civil court system to ensure the rights of the elderly are protected and that their abusers are held accountable for their wrongdoing.
She sees it their mission to fight for people who had been harmed by the willful or negligent actions of others.
Lesley has built a substantial reputation by consistently winning cases other law firms have turned down.
And her amazing courtroom skills and headline grabbing success rate continue to provide her clients with the results they need……And the results they deserve.
You can get more information about Lesley Clement and the Clement Law Group @ https://www.elderabuseadvocates.com/ 916 444 9323