Nursing Home Residents, Families To Get $5.5M in CHSLD Herron Settlement

UPDATE:

• A judge approved the CHSLD Herron settlement on may 6, 2021.
• Top Class Actions will let viewers know when a claim form becomes available.

Long-term care facility CHSLD Herron has reached a $5.5 million settlement with residents and their family members after residents filed a class action lawsuit alleging neglect and a lack of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the spring of 2020, 47 residents at the facility died due to the novel coronavirus.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs told CBC Canada the settlement was “extremely reasonable” and he hoped other class actions against CHSLDs would result in settlements.

The lawyer went on to say that the agreement had recently been reached and still needed to be approved at an April 30 hearing at the Superior Court of Québec.

Although the class action lawsuit, which names the Herron home, an Ontario company, Katasa Group Inc. and Katasa Development Inc. as defendants, was filed in the context of the pandemic, it exposed long-standing issues at the facility.

“It was based on what we allege was the negligent treatment provided to the most frail and vulnerable in these residences,” the residents’ lawyer told reporters. 

In September, Top Class Actions reported that employees deserted the long-term care home at the first detected COVID-19 case, leaving vulnerable elders abandoned to a grim fate. Thirty-eight residents at the Centre reportedly died in ten days.

Barbara Schneider, who led the CHSLD Herron class action, reported that her mother died of COVID-19 while at the care facility, after the owners of the home abandoned staff and residents without proper equipment or resources to deal with the spreading virus. 

In November 2020, CHSLD Herron reportedly announced it was closing the facility, and all remaining residents would be relocated.  

The settlement applies to people who were residents of the long-term care home between March 13 and May 31, 2020, liquidators of the estates of those who died during that period, and surviving spouses and children. 

Moira Davis, whose father died at CHSLD Herron in April 2020, told CBC Canada the settlement amount was inadequate and there was not enough money in the world to compensate for what her father experienced. 

“He was in his mid 90s, he had a host of health issues, but he sure as heck didn’t deserve to die like that or to suffer during that time,” she told reporters.

There is a public inquiry underway into the deaths at CHSLD facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, but hearings on the CHSLD Herron facility have been delayed until fall, with the defendant’s lawyer saying the timing of the inquiry was unfair to her clients.

The pandemic ravaged long-term care facilities across the globe and was a grave danger to vulnerable, elderly residents. In the US, COVID-19 has reportedly killed more than 179,000 residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, the AARP Public Policy Institute found.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, residents in nursing home facilities are at high risk of getting infected and dying from the virus, in part due to having a higher rate of underlying conditions and living in a congregate facility where containment is difficult.

Lawsuits have been filed against other long-term care facilities over wrongful death, including against New Jersey’s Andover facility. The plaintiff brought the class action against two New Jersey nursing homes and the owner/operators for failing to take preventive infection measures against the COVID-19 virus. Their failure to protect led to the loss of 94 lives in the nursing homes. 

Did you have a loved one in a long-term care facility during the COVID-19 pandemic? Have you been able to see them in-person yet? Let us know your story in the comments section!

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• Extendicare Named in Canada’s Largest COVID-19 Lawsuit Launched Against Nursing Homes
• British Columbia COVID-19 Business Interruption Insurance Lawsuit
• Canada’s Guide to Coronavirus Outbreak Legal Issues