Lawyers preparing class action lawsuit against retirement village manager
MELBOURNE: Lawyers who are preparing a class action lawsuit against retirement schemes and others based on the alleged abuse, neglect and abuse of a resident of a nursing home in Fraser Valley meet with families of residents in corporate facilities on Vancouver Island that have been taken over by the health authorities.
A civil suit was filed in May 2018 by the children of Blondine Hübner, a deceased former resident of Waverly Seniors Village in Chilliwack that is owned and operated by Retirement Concepts. It mentions retirement concepts as well as PR Seniors Housing Management Ltd., Cedar Tree Investment Canada Inc. and the Ministry of Health of the Province of BC.
A class action application was filed last month, identifying the same defendants.
PR Seniors Housing Management is now called West Coast Seniors Housing Management and operates Retirement Concepts’ retirement and care facilities.
The Anbang Insurance Group, a formerly high profile but now restructured and renamed Beijing company, bought Retirement Concepts and its 20 retirement homes worth over $ 1 billion in 2017 through its wholly owned subsidiary Cedar, based in Vancouver Tree Investment Canada. The deal, approved by Ottawa, received criticism from those who advocated patient care and may have been affected by a foreign company that said little about who it actually belongs to. This is prescribed by the federal investment regulations.
According to the law firm, “The plaintiffs have filed this lawsuit on behalf of everyone who lived and operated Retirement Concepts in nursing homes after November 26, 2002, and on behalf of their residents’ spouses, parents, and children. “
This date is years before Retang Concepts and Anbar and Cedar Tree bought 2017.
“It is sensible to initiate a class action lawsuit as there is a systemic problem in all of the facilities operated by Retirement Concepts,” said Rajinder Sahota, lawyer at Acheson, Sweeney, Foley, Sahota, a law firm based in Victoria.
The company is working on a certification schedule for the case, Sahota said. This includes talking to other candidates, but he declined to say who and how many people were contacted.
“The main problem is that there is an at-risk population served by a provincial regulated industry where the lack of proper enforcement of existing regulations and regulation of bodies that provide trustworthy services at a trustworthy level do so haven’t done. “
Family members of residents who live or have lived in Comox Valley Seniors Village and Nanaimo Seniors Village wrote many letters to the Vancouver Island Health Authority before it took over both facilities and the Selkirk Seniors Village in Victoria.
Now some family members say that they have met with Sahota and other lawyers to find out how to make affidavits for a possible class action lawsuit.
“This could take years, but it would be an instrument to draw attention to the problem. Filing complaints with licensing officials does not address the real issue, ”said Delores Broten, whose husband lives in the Comox Valley Seniors Village.
The 2018 ad, which has not been proven in court, says the plaintiff’s mother, Hübner, started living with Waverly in February 2017. The staff allegedly did not follow the doctor’s instructions to administer medication and ensured that Huebner’s dentures were used so that she could eat properly and regularly, and that, in August, she suffered “severe injuries, including a black eye, facial swelling Bruises on her left shoulder and arm, and a large tear or tear on the left forearm. “
In March, the province responded to the civil suit, saying the other defendants were “not owned or controlled by the province.”
West Coast Seniors Housing Management would not comment.
