Two separate class actions brought by people living in CHSLDs and their families and attacking the poor quality of care given before, during and after the pandemic can continue to move forward in parallel, judge Donald Bisson has ruled. , of the Superior Court, in a decision handed down on Tuesday.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
In one case, we will look at the daily services offered in public CHSLDs in Quebec since 2015 and in the other, we will examine in particular the care offered during the pandemic in some of the same establishments. For Judge Bisson, “it is in the interest of justice that these debates remain legally distinct”.
Two appeals
In July 2018, Daniel Pilote and the Council for the Protection of Patients (CPM) had filed a first request for collective action for all people residing in a public CHSLD since July 9, 2015 and towards whom the CHSLDs would have failed to offer a substitute living environment in accordance with the Health and Social Services Act. The $500 million lawsuit, authorized in September 2019, tackles the poor quality of services offered on a daily basis, such as poor quality hygiene care and food. Lawyer Jacques Larochelle represents Mr. Pilote and the CPM in this case, which must now be heard on the merits.
Then, in April 2020, Jean-Pierre Daubois, whose mother died at the CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée de Laval during the COVID-19 pandemic, in turn filed a request for class action against public CHSLDs. The application has since been amended and is in the authorization stage. The action is aimed, among other things, at anyone who has resided in a public CHSLD where at least 5% of residents were infected with COVID-19 between March 13, 2020 and March 20, 2021. Lawyer Patrick Martin-Ménard represents Mr. Daubois in this file.
The Attorney General of Quebec and the CHSLDs concerned considered that there was “lis pendens” in the two files. In short, they argued that the two actions were based on facts so similar that the services offered in CHSLDs during the pandemic should be removed from Mr. Daubois’ action to be dealt with only in the first action of Mr. Pilote and the CPM. .
Judge Bisson rejected this request. For him, the two causes “put forward faults of a different nature”. One raises criticism of elements “which relate to the management of a pandemic”, which has “nothing to do with the daily living environment”. “The factual basis of the Daubois action is the faulty management of the pandemic and the spread of COVID-19 in CHSLDs during the first two waves of the pandemic as well as the resulting damage, whereas the factual basis of the CPM file is the bankruptcy of the public CHSLDs since July 9, 2015 to date to their obligation to offer a quality substitute living environment”, is it written in the decision. Dates are forthcoming for the continuation of both causes.