Facility: Elders not ready to evacuate
Residents ‘failed’ to be prepared, home contends
Operators of a Santa Rosa assisted-living facility that was destroyed in last fall’s deadly Tubbs Fire blamed elderly residents for being unprepared to evacuate, according to a recent court filing.
Four former residents of Villa Capri, a highend retirement community, claimed in November that operators of Oakmont Senior Living and Oakmont Management Group had no evacuation plan in place when the Oct. 9 fire raged through suburban Santa Rosa and killed 24 people.
No residents of Villa Capri died in the fire, but the lawsuit accused staff of abandoning 24 of its 70 residents, including 14 in the dementia care unit. A 92-year-old woman who suffers from blindness, dementia and hearing impairments reportedly suffered a broken hip while being rescued by an unknown person.
The claim, which was filed Jan. 18 in Sonoma County Superior Court and has grown to represent 13 former residents, accused Villa Capri’s staff of “elder abuse, negligence, false imprisonment, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
On Feb. 20, Oakmont’s lawyers filed a response that included a general denial while pointing a finger back at the “plaintiffs’ failure to mitigate damages.” The response went on to say that the Villa Capri residents, whose ages ranged from 82 to 95, “failed to take adequate precautions that would have avoided and/or diminished (their) injuries and damages, if any.”
The filing also said that residents did not act “in a reasonable manner or as a reasonable person likely would have in like or similar circumstances.”
Kathryn Stebner, an attorney for former Villa Capri residents, said she was “disheartened” by the filing and equated the response to victimblaming.
“This case is not an usual case, but I’ve been doing elder abuse cases for over 30 years and this surprised me,” she said.
Stebner added that some of her clients were shocked by the language. The daughter of one resident, she added, “said, ‘My mom cried as she read it.’ ”
With many of Villa Capri’s residents suffering from disabilities and dementia, Stebner said, she intends to use the depositions of Oakmont officials to ask “what it is that my clients should have done differently, point blank.”
Attorneys for Giovanniello Law Group, which is representing the operators, did not respond to requests for comment.