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Lawyers from the firm Lesser, Newman, Aleo, and Nassar, of Northampton, announced the filing of the federal lawsuit on July 17 in front of the Springfield Court House.
The $176 million figure would provide $1 million to each of the families of the 76 Holyoke Soldiers' Home veterans who died from COVID-19. The remaining $100 million would cover punitive damages and be available to the 80 additional veterans who, lawyers said, contracted the virus at the home, said attorney Tom Lesser during a press conference on the lawsuit.
“We’re here today because the Commonwealth of Massachusetts made a promise to its citizen soldiers: you take care of us … and we will take care of you when you return,” Lesser said. Leadership at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home showed “deliberate indifference to the most basic needs of these veterans and as a result of their actions, and their inactions, 76 veterans unnecessarily died.”
Although it is a class-action lawsuit, there is one named defendant: Joseph Sniadach, who served in the Korean War and died of the virus at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.
A combination of terrible management, as well as a lack of communication and equipment, led to the unnecessary deaths of U.S. veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, according to the independent investigation commissioned by the governor’s office.
The Holyoke Soldiers’ Home suffered a major COVID-19 outbreak that started in March. Instead of adhering to best practices, Soldiers’ Home management made copious errors that resulted in the deaths of scores of military veterans. After Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Superintendent Bennett Walsh was put on paid administrative leave at the end of March, the governor’s office ordered an independent review of what went wrong.
Walsh has said that, early on, he asked the state for help with the growing COVID-19 crisis and was denied.
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