Families Of 53 Northwood Residents Who Died File Class-Action Lawsuit
HALIFAX — Families of Northwood residents who died during the Covid-19 outbreak have taken the first steps towards filing a class-action lawsuit against the company that runs the facility.
Wagners Law Firm filed a statement of claim against Northwoodcare Group Inc. June 1, alleging that the facility’s Covid-19 safety measures were “ineffective, inadequate, and too late.”
Northwood’s Halifax campus has been the epicenter of Nova Scotia’s Covid-19 outbreak since a staff member tested positive for the virus in early April.
As of June 1, 345 cases of the virus had been identified at the facility and 53 of its residents have died. The families of those 53 residents are represented in the class.
Ray Wagner is the lawyer spearheading the effort. He says there was plenty of early evidence from other parts of the world demonstrating how dangerous Covid-19 was for elderly populations. He alleges management at Northwood knew this but didn’t take the appropriate steps to protect its residents.
“There is a host of things they did do and a host of things that they didn’t do that led to this outbreak,” said Wagner.
The proposed lawsuit claims residents weren’t properly separated, were forced to share bathrooms and common rooms with no restrictions and weren’t tested aggressively enough. It also claims the facility didn’t provide appropriate personal protective equipment and didn’t properly limit visitors to the facility.
The statement of claim Wagner filed on behalf of the families puts it plainly:
“Despite the vulnerability of Residents, Northwood Halifax continued to operate the Long-Term Care Facility in a manner ideal for the spread of an infectious disease.”
Northwood did not agree to be interviewed about the proposed lawsuit but in an emailed statement said it “remains committed to the care and safety of our residents and employees as we continue to manage active cases of [Covid-19] at our Halifax campus.”
“We have received notification of legal action and we will carefully review and vigorously respond,” the statement reads.
‘We don’t have the luxury to wait’
Although there are still active cases of Covid-19 inside Northwood, Wager says it is important to move forward with the case in a timely manner.
“Justice takes a long time, and if we wait a long time we’re only adding more time to an outcome for this case,” he said. “People have to go through the grieving process: the shock of losing their loved one, the remorse, then finally the turning to look for answers. Were in the look-for-answers stage now.”
He argues court is one of the ways to get those answers, to tease out “what was done and what wasn’t done” during the outbreak and determine how liable Northwood is for what happened.
He said Northwood residents can’t afford to wait for change when second and third outbreaks of COVID-19 are still a real possibility.
“Tragedy often happens if there no accountability. If there are no forward-looking and changes in behavior people have a tendency to retreat to old habits. We just don’t have the luxury to wait for that,” said Wagner.
Province Might Be Named In Lawsuit
Wagner says his firm is still exploring whether to add the Nova Scotia government to the claim.
He says his firm will almost certainly give the government notice of intent, but “whether we will… bring an action against the government is something that we will determine over the next two months.”
Wagner says Northwood is responsible for its own behavior but if the government had enough involvement with operational decisions at the facility it might make sense to include it in the lawsuit.
“We’re actively looking at that issue, but we don’t needlessly sue people unless we feel that there’s a really clear path to a successful conclusion,” Wagner said.
Premier Stephen McNeil had little to say when asked about the lawsuit at a press conference on June 2.
“I heard there was a class action filed today. We’ll follow through with it,” McNeil said, before thanking Northwood staff for their work.
Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, did not comment on the lawsuit directly but said the province did a lot of work with Northwood to build a Covid-19-specific outbreak protocol.
“I feel we’ve had a very robust process in place building on the longstanding work we’ve done with long-term care facilities in general around outbreak management,” Strang said.
Right now, the statement of claim has only been filed against Northwoodcare Group Inc. and its associated companies.
Northwood has 15 days to respond to the statement. After that, a judge will decide if a class action lawsuit can move forward against the company.