Lawsuits Pile On After NJ Agrees To $16M For Veteran's Home Deaths

NEW JERSEY — The state agreed to pay another eight-digit settlement to resolve claims that its veteran's homes mishandled the early days of COVID-19. Although New Jersey officials opted to pay nearly $69 million to families of deceased residents and staff, another set of lawsuits brings the state's alleged pandemic missteps to the forefront.

Employees at the Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home brought the most recent round of lawsuits, claiming the state-run facilities "needlessly endangered" them through actions and inactions during the early COVID crisis. The Menlo Park home had outright prohibited staff from wearing masks, saying they "might scare the residents," according to the complaints.

On March 18, 2020, another employee emailed then-CEO Elizabeth Schiff-Heedles — one of the lawsuit's defendants — that most of the staff worked all day "with the residents coughing in our faces," according to the complaint, "and, we don't have a mask to put on. We cannot care for them six feet away."

Defendants also include the state, the home itself, the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and several current and former administrators.

Plaintiffs include the family of Monemise Romelus — a nursing assistant who died from COVID on May 11, 2020. The Haiti native began to suffer from COVID symptoms the prior month, including fevers, chills and cough, the lawsuit states. She took herself out of work April 8, 2020 — against her supervisors' demands — to prevent spreading the virus to colleagues and residents, according to the complaint.

Romelus was hospitalized April 17 at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, where she died weeks later, the lawsuit says.

New Jersey runs three veteran's homes, where officials have attributed 174 deaths to COVID since the pandemic began — 85 in Paramus, 73 in Menlo Park and 15 in Vineland, according to state data. The death toll includes one employee at each home.

Gov. Phil Murphy's administration agreed to a $52.9 million settlement in December, following claims that the state's negligence contributed to more than 100 deaths in the state-run facilities. The families of 119 residents whose deaths were attributed to COVID brought legal action.

The state will also pay an additional $15.975 million to the families of 71 veterans who died from COVID illness in the early days of the pandemic. The settlement will give each family an average of $225,000, but an arbitration process will determine how much each claimant receives.

A spokesperson for the Murphy administration declined comment, as the litigation remains active.

Republican lawmakers have criticized New Jersey's handling of COVID in veteran's homes. State Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-26) first introduced a resolution in May 2020 to convene a Senate Select Committee on the Murphy administration's coronavirus response. The State Senate has voted five times to table the resolution, last voting on it in December.

"This Administration is being protected by political allies in the Legislature," Pennacchio said in a statement. "Nursing home victims deserve better, and the taxpayers have the right to know the details of these settlements."