Sentosa Care agreed topay $3 million to settle a lengthy class action case that has endured for fiveyears, reports Skilled Nursing News. This $3 million settlement extinguishes all claims for the 150 classmembers, including their TVPA violations.
In 2021, a federal judge found that Sentosa was liable for $1.56million, plus interest and the risk of additional damages. The TVPA violations were novel in nursestaffing cases. Ordinarily courts allowdamage clauses to be inserted into employment contracts. However here, the federal judge found that theclause represented a threat to continue employment because a prior court hadfound Sentosa’s damage clause was unenforceable, allowing the TVPA claim tocontinue. Sentosa has now settled allclaims associated with the case.
Sentosa’s involvement inlitigation is often unusual. In March2022, Reuters reported that remnants of a 2006 case continueto circulate throughout the federal court system. As MU Law discussed in 2010,
In 2006, eleven Philippine nurses employed ata Suffolk County, Long Island nursing home walked off their positions becauseof alleged bad working conditions. This mass resignation set off a chain oflawsuits [including one where the nurses] filed a federal civil rights lawsuitagainst . . . the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.
The March 2022 Reuters report says that a 2-1 federal appealscourt has now held that the Suffolk County DA’s office is immune from thislawsuit. One wonders if this ends this16 year litigation.