Posted on 12/27/2021 8:49:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park became the site of one of the deadliest outbreaks in the nation. While the facility initially underreported the death count, stating 62 died of Covid, it later acknowledged 39 additional resident deaths were due to Covid-19—making the total a staggering 101.
According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Covid-19 positive residents were separated from dementia patients by a loosely hung piece of plastic. Moreover, employees at the facility were discouraged from using face masks in caring for patients, with one plan discussed to discipline employees over “mask insubordination.” Managers also delayed informing families of residents about the outbreak.
Now, Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has agreed to pay $53 million to the families of 119 residents, most of whom died from Covid-19 at the state-run facilities at Menlo Park and the Paramus Veterans Memorial Homes. The payout settles claims that officials at these facilities acted with gross negligence in handling the outbreak, according to nursing home and infection control standards.
In addition to the families of those who died, the settlement also includes “a few [who] had family members who caught COVID at the homes and survived,” reports NorthJersey.com, while separate “lawsuits by employees — including the family of at least one deceased nursing aide — are still ongoing.”
The settlement calls for the state to disburse 60% of the total amount in equal payments of $267,000 to each family in the agreement during the first quarter of 2022, said Paul da Costa, a lawyer who represented 72 of the residents’ families. The balance will be paid out by July 30, with the exact amounts paid to each family to be determined through further binding arbitration based on the details of their claims, he said. […]
The settlement heads off any formal lawsuits related to the families’ claims. New Jersey, like some other states, passed legislation early in the pandemic easing liability for Covid-related claims against nursing homes. That set a high bar for plaintiffs to bring such claims and few have led to payments so far, lawyers say.
Separately, the deaths at the veterans homes also triggered investigations by the New Jersey Attorney General and the U.S. Justice Department, which announced a civil-rights investigation several weeks after the Journal’s first report on the facilities. Activity continued in those investigations in recent months, people familiar with the matter said. (WSJ)
While money certainly isn’t a replacement for the lives lost, da Costa said he and his clients “are satisfied that this settlement provides a good measure of civil justice."
where is the money for all the poor landlords who couldn’t evict the deadbeats for nearly 2 years?
that should be a trillion dollar fine on the government
Thank you for being so generous with my money, NJ; Murphy and Cuomo across the river should be jailed for this.
Murphy should pay this out of his fat wallet. It was his direction that these poor vets were put back in the vet homes. It’s a disgrace.
This quasi execution of people in nursing homes was intentionally done by fully informed policy makers who knew perfectly well what the consequences woulds be. The only question was what was their motive. They should be in jail, not just paying out blood money to families
Works about as well as a face mask, which is not at all.
That’s a 30% under reporting
Take that number as a minimum of 39% of all deaths in all nursing homes in all the Democrat governed states were not reported. Add that to the total no dr of sidedly deaths
Maybe we can use this as evidence the left used the nursing homes to drive up the numbers of Covid deaths so they could gain co trip of the country and scare citizens into allowing them to destroy the greatest middle calls the World has ever seen.
The Blavk death of the early 2nd millennium ended Feudalism and helped create the great Middle.chase
And now a fake pandemic is destroying the kiddie class of the Western World.
Restitution to the victims should be extracted from Governor Murphy’s wealth. And Murphy should have already been indicted, tried and convicted. We live in the bizzaro world.
“New Jersey Agrees to Pay Tens of Millions to Families of Covid-19 Victims in State’s Veterans’ Homes”
Read.... infrastructure bill.
1% for veterans, 99% for pols and friends of pols.
Who could oppose money for veterans families? The “children”. don’t you know.
Our government/country/world is so CORRUPT, that only a 1776 revolution can fix it.
IMO, that former Governor of NY should be up on charges for murder....
Not,good enough. The family of a drug addiction who killed himself via overdose of several powerful drugs got $27 million dollars. Governors sent sick people into nursing homes knowing full well what would happen, showing clear depraved intent! “10’s of millions” to be split among many families isn’t good enough
Its even worse then that, these fools are not paying it, the tax suckers of NJ and Fed are paying it.
Very convenient that this was all done after an election as well.
—”that should be a trillion dollar fine on the government”
Paid for out of pocket by politicians and bureaucrats.
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