Senior home employee cashed in at resident's expense, suit alleges

While an 81-year-old woman was drugged and confined to her room at Prestige Assisted Living, employees of the Marysville elderly care facility held pool parties at the woman's home, a lawsuit claims.

Maria Estes has been seeking a settlement with Prestige Care, the Vancouver, Wash.-based corporation that owns the Marysville facility and 43 others, but is facing hardball litigation tactics, her attorney says.

"My client is very, very fragile," Edward Dudensing said Friday. "We want people in the community to hear what happened to her and make their own decision."

Prestige Care in December appealed a Sacramento County Superior Court judge's ruling that the case would not go to arbitration, Dudensing said. That appeal will delay for at least a year the trial Estes has a right to, he said.

Estes went to Prestige Assisted Living in 2006 to stay temporarily because her caretaker had to travel to Mexico on personal business, her lawsuit says. Employees of the elderly care facility knew Estes was from Spain and had no children or relatives, according to her lawsuit.

They kept her in a room with a sign reading, "Maria is not allowed visitors. Too ill," the lawsuit claims.

Estes asserts the employee who moved into her Yuba City home and lived there for more than five months said she'd pay rent but never did.

The employee told Estes to trust only her, according to the lawsuit, which states that Estes wrote the woman more than $9,000 in checks.

"She told me I could trust her to protect me," Estes claims in the suit.

Prestige Care's attorney, Ryan Delamarter, wrote in an e-mail that the employee who took up residence in the elderly woman's home was fired.

"We've been in business a long time," Delamarter wrote. "We know when we err we need to own up to it, but we do need to defend ourselves when we are wrongly accused."

Many of the claims made by Estes' legal team are elaborations designed to increase the value of her case, according to Delamarter. Prestige has offered to work toward a "fair and equitable settlement in this case," he wrote.

"The sad reality of Ms. Estes' case was that we had an employee who failed her, and failed us," Delamarter acknowledged.

"We are open, eager and willing to try and make this right, as we've been since we learned of our mistakes," the attorney added. "We admit our errors, but will defend the honor and integrity of our current employees and our company against the lawyer-spawned exaggeration of the facts."

Delamarter would only respond to questions about the case via e-mail. A Prestige Care representative was unavailable Friday to comment.

The lawsuit filed last year on behalf of Estes asserts that another worker at Prestige Assisted Living happened to see the since-fired employee's vehicle at Estes' house. Rather than report the discovery, that worker began attending swim parties with other employees, the suit asserts.

A neighbor of Estes was able to find her by calling various local elderly care facilities, but was refused entry to visit Estes at the Marysville site, the lawsuit states.

Estes' attorney said he offered a settlement — at Prestige's request — more than two months ago, but the corporation has ignored his response.

"It is disappointing," Dudensing said, "that Prestige has chosen to attack Ms. Estes' attorneys rather than accept responsibility."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.