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$5 Million Settlement Reached With City Over
Evacuation of a Nursing Home
By
SUSAN SAULNY Brenda Tripp broke into tears yesterday when she was asked to recall the time five years ago when her mother, Eunice, an octogenarian who suffers from dementia, was told to leave her Queens nursing home in the middle of the night, after which she was lost to her family for two weeks. Eunice Tripp, now 86, and 281 other indigent residents of the Neponsit Health Care Center in the Rockaways were told to evacuate on Sept. 10, 1998, because New York City housing officials had decided, rather suddenly, that the nursing home was in danger of collapsing. Yesterday, the city agreed to pay each Neponsit resident $18,000 as part of a $5 million class-action lawsuit settlement approved in Federal District Court in Manhattan, ending a legal battle that, advocates for the elderly have said, called into question the city's commitment to public health care. In the lawsuit, Brown v. Giuliani, the residents of the home claimed to have suffered violations of their rights to due process, in addition to psychological and physical injuries. The mostly sick, elderly residents were scattered throughout the health care system that night, some still in their nightgowns, possessions stuffed into plastic bags. Two died shortly after, and some advocates for the residents said it was because of the trauma of the move. Another resident was considering missing by the police for several weeks, and many others said they were traumatized by the ordeal. Before Judge Victor Marrero of United States District Court approved the settlement yesterday, he presided over a fairness hearing during which a lawyer for the city, Barbara B. Butler, said it was a benefit to all parties that the litigation come to an end. "We believe there is an important balance between relief to residents and the cost of extremely protracted litigation and trial," she told the court. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
