© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Massachusetts agrees to $56M settlement over Holyoke Soldiers' Home COVID-19 outbreak

Holyoke Soldiers' Home
WAMC

84 veterans died in the outbreak, 84 survived.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has agreed to have the state pay a $56 million settlement to families of veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home who came down with COVID-19 during the notorious outbreak there in the spring of 2020.

The settlement to a class action lawsuit was submitted Thursday morning to a federal judge in Springfield, who must approve the agreement.

Attorneys Thomas Lesser and Michael Aleo of Northampton filed the lawsuit in July 2020 on behalf of the Holyoke victims.

WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with the two attorneys about the announced settlement.

Thomas Lesser

We brought a lawsuit, a civil rights action in the United States District Court on behalf of the veterans who lived at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in early 2020.and contracted COVID due to the negligence that occurred there. 84 people died 84 people contracted COVID and lived. It was a tragedy that never should have happened. So we brought this action. And today, we're very happy that we were able to announce in the United States District Court, that the case it's settled for the sum of $56 million. When we brought this case, we brought it because it was the right thing to do. It was a tragedy that had to be addressed. We brought it without any expectation of necessarily ever settling the case or receiving money, we brought it because the facts had to come to light about what happened at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.

Paul Tuthill 

And so, Michael, if you want to jump in here, what happens now, what are the terms of this of this settlement?

Michael Aleo

The next step in the process, after the court preliminarily approved, the settlement terms, will be to notify all of the potential class members of the settlement to explain it so they can understand it, and to give them the opportunity to submit claim forms and information about their own family, about the veterans own experience of COVID, and details about the veteran, so that the claims administrator understands the, you know, the breadth of the pain and anguish that the veteran him or herself went through, but the family went through as well. And that process will help to guide the families and the claims administrator to award settlement amounts to each class member.

Paul Tuthill 

Now, the claims administrator has already been already been appointed. Correct. It's a former US Attorney Donald Stern?

Michael Aleo

We have selected a claims administrator. We've agreed to a claims administrator Donald K Stern, former US Attorney with the Commonwealth, and the court will, upon approving the settlement agreement, formally appoint him to act as the claims administrator,

Paul Tuthill 

How many people might be eligible to participate in this to receive compensation?

Thomas Lesser

We have identified 84 people who died. And we have identified 84 people who contracted COVID who did not die. The Commonwealth has made their best efforts to go through all the records and determine those numbers. Originally, those numbers were smaller. The initial reports talked about 76 -78 people who died now we've determined there are 84, there could be people that we don't know about.

Paul Tuthill 

So Tom, what does that process look like then if people, perhaps, might be eligible to participate in this? How do they determine that?

Thomas Lesser

They should make themselves known to us. And we will work with them and where appropriate try to include them in the process.

Paul Tuthill 

The next steps in this are our what, Michael?

Michael Aleo

The next step will be for us to submit to the court the proposed settlement agreement. We plan to do that by next Friday, May 20, the court will review the proposed settlement agreement. And if the court has questions, we'll schedule a conference to answer whatever questions the court might have. But otherwise, we'll preliminarily approve the proposed settlement agreement and from there notice will begin going out to families. And so it's going to be important for families who believe that they're likely class members to keep an eye out for those forms. Probably won't receive them until mid to late June. But do keep an eye out for those forms, to read them carefully, to fill the forms out, and then to submit them back to the claims administrator. And so that process will go through much of the summer, potentially the entire summer. And after all of the families have had a chance to respond will eventually appear back in front of the court. And if not, by the end of the year, by early next year. If everything goes relatively according to plan checks might in fact issue that quickly.

Paul Tuthill 

And there's there's a minimum sum right that that family members will receive. Is that Is that right?

Michael Aleo

There are two settlement classes that we've identified. One settlement class those are for veterans who contracted COVID 19 and passed away prior to June 23, 2020. The other settlement class is for those veterans who contracted COVID 19 and survived past June 23, 2020. So for the first group of veterans and it'll be the estates of those veterans. The average amount that is targeted for each of the class members in that class is $510,000. There's a minimum amount that those families would receive, which is $400,000. But there'll be eligible at the discretion of the claims administrator for additional payments. The claims administrator will use that discretion by reviewing the information that the family submit to make a decision to decide how to allocate those monies. So some families might get a little bit more than $510,000, some a little bit less. The other settlement class the average payment is $20,000. And the claims administrator will have even more discretion with that class where the minimum payment to class members for the veterans who survived past June 23. They will be entitled to no less than $10,000. But the claims administrator will have considerable discretion to award more than that amount just not to exceed a maximum of $400,000.

Paul Tuthill 

Tom Lesser, your suit originally named former Superintendent Bennett Walsh and other individuals, this settlement is with the state. So are Walsh and the others not a part of this?

Thomas Lesser

No, they are a part of this. It's a settlement of all the claims against all the defendants. We added two defendants also, we added one defendant who is who was Marylou Sudders is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Our original complaint was against four administrators at the Home plus Francisco Urena who was Secretary of Veterans Affairs. With the addition of Sudders we had six defendants and the governor negotiated the settlement on behalf of the Commonwealth. But all six defendants will be released from any further monetary claims.

Paul Tuthill 

This ends the civil litigation?

Thomas Lesser

That is correct. Assuming that number one, the legislature appropriates $56 million. Number two, there aren't a large number of people who opt out of the settlement for some reason. Assuming that those contingencies, we would expect within the next six months that the $56 million would be distributed to the class of people.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
Related Content