Albuquerque, NM. An Albuquerque District Court awarded $4.26 million dollars in damages against Night N Gail Assisted Living for the death of an 89-year-old woman. The facility, owned by Kathleen Franklin, received multiple citations for violating state regulations in the years leading up to her death.
The lawsuit by the family of Donnelda Simma claimed that Night N Gail accepted and kept her although she required care that the facility was unable to provide. Counsel for the family, Dusti Harvey of the Harvey & Foote Law Firm, described to the court how the family became concerned about their mother’s care, but were convinced to keep her at the facility upon the owner’s promises to implement changes-which were not made and resulted in Ms. Simma’s death after she fell and struck her head on the bathtub and was not transferred to the hospital until 28 hours later.
