Stephen Garcia and David Medby of The Garcia Law Firm Acquire Final Approval of Class Action Settlement Against Longwood Management Inc. On Behalf of Over 19,000 Elder and Infirm California Residents.
On December 8, 2006 Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr granted final approval of a class action settlement filed by The Garcia Law Firm involving Longwood Management, and each of the skilled nursing facilities it owns, operates and/or manages in the State of California, on behalf of over 19,000 residents over a four and a half year period. The lawsuit alleged that the Longwood facilities failed to have the minimum staffing levels required by law to insure the delivery of proper care to their residents.
In addition to the availability of monetary recovery on behalf of each of the over 19,000 elder and infirm adults, an injunction was put in place requiring the appointment of an independent monitor with broad enforcement powers to assure that going into the future the Longwood facilities truly insure that there is sufficient staff on duty at all times to meet the needs of their residents.
As class counsel David M. Medby noted, "while it is unfortunate that the Department of Health Services is unable to enforce applicable regulations, we are gratified that we were able to utilize this lawsuit to insure that going into the future Longwood will be independently monitored to insure the sufficiency of staffing in their facilities. The monitor has broad enforcement powers and we believe that will assist as a "stick" if you will, to compel Longwood to adhere to the applicable and important staffing regulations."
Hit "READ" link below to view settlement agreement.
