Nursing home patients still haven’t gotten checks from Bob Dean. Here’s when they’re expected.

Already paralyzed over half of his body from a stroke, nursing-home patient Andrew Hicks, 60, developed gangrene after spending nearly a week in a fetid warehouse during 2021's Hurricane Ida.

He lost a leg as a result.

Still, Hicks hasn't received a cent from nursing home owner Bob Dean.

"We're still fighting," said Hicks' wife, Terry. "There are days where I just go about my day and try not to think about it. If I keep thinking about it, I think I'll get into a depressive state."

Hicks is among more than 800 of Dean's former patients or their heirs who have waited for months for payments from a class-action settlement that a Jefferson Parish judge approved in November over Dean's botched evacuation of seven south Louisiana nursing homes.

When the deal was reached, limiting a settlement to proceeds from three insurance policies held by Dean, attorneys for the class suggested that checks could go out before Christmas. But that timetable fell apart, stalled after a threatened appeal that never came.

The appeal period ended late last month. Retired state district Judge William "Rusty" Knight, the special master assigned to distribute a little over $12 million in insurance funds under the settlement, said the pace has since picked up.

After $2.8 million in attorneys fees and additional costs, about $9 million will be spread among the plaintiffs, Knight projected. That's a little more than $10,000 per patient, on average. Patients who file separate medical malpractice claims against Dean may also be able to receive more money through those lawsuits.

Knight said he expects "proof of claim" questionnaires to be sent out to all of the plaintiffs by March 15, asking them to describe their suffering during the evacuation. Dean's former patients or their heirs will have 30 days to respond and another 15 days to supplement their claims.

Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District, who is overseeing the class action, will settle any appeals of Knight's decision over how much each plaintiff will receive.

Knight said he expects checks to go out in late May or early June.

"While it is slower than any of us want and we're very aware of that, it's much better to do it right than to do it fast," Knight said. "We're doing our absolute, dead-level best to maximize what each resident receives."

Each plaintiff to receive a pay out

All of the plaintiffs will receive something, Knight said, describing the "terrible situation" they endured at an ill-equipped warehouse in Independence before state health officials stepped in.

State records show Dean ignored his staff's pleas for help as residents grew sicker and some died in the cramped, partially flooded warehouse, which federal authorities have since claimed he employed as a vehicle to divert nursing home revenues to his personal use.

A federal complaint filed in January claims Dean fueled a lavish lifestyle in part by siphoning money from the warehouse, which lacked adequate toilets, showers and air conditioning.

The U.S. Justice Department lawsuit claims Dean misspent $4 million in money earmarked for four of his nursing homes. Dean also faces state criminal charges for cruelty to the infirm and Medicaid fraud, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Attorney General Jeff Landry's office is handling that case.

Dean managed to avoid sworn testimony over the evacuation. His lawyers claimed he had spiraled into dementia. A Georgia probate judge last year accepted that diagnosis while placing Dean's affairs under the control of his wife, Karen.

As of early this year, 147 of Dean's evacuated patients had died, Knight said.

"Everybody's very focused on getting this done as quickly as possible," said Don Massey, one of the lead attorneys for the class.

A few patients had already settled before the judge approved the class settlement: the agreement says that three insurers paid nearly $67,000 apiece to settle four claims.

Level of suffering to determine settlements

Knight said he will place all of the class-action plaintiffs in "four or five buckets, or categories of damage," while determining how many deaths to attribute to the calamitous evacuation.

"There may be physical injuries that were directly caused by the evacuation," Knight said. "Maybe somebody got dropped. Maybe somebody got sepsis. Some people unfortunately have some emotional or mental injuries. There's a series of questions designed to elicit information from the residents to find out why you're different."

Having lost a leg would likely place Hicks and his family among the most severely hurt by the ordeal; he is one of at least two patients to undergo amputation after the evacuation. His wife said she placed him into the nursing home because she could no longer care for him alone after a stroke left half of his body paralyzed.

She discovered after Ida that her husband had been evacuated to the warehouse when she saw a photo of him on Nola.com, after she'd tried calling her husband's cellphone and nursing home administrators for days without a response. Since then, she's moved him to another nursing home in Gonzales, with the drive to visit him from her Belle Chasse home sometimes lasting an hour.

Her hope is they receive enough settlement money for Hicks to live again at home, with help.

"I hope to get something where he would be comfortable, where he can come home, just get enough where he can come home and we could have somebody here with him 24/7," Terry Hicks said.

Attorneys line up for fees

While Dean's patients wait on settlement money, their attorneys are squabbling over who deserves the biggest cut of lawyer fees. The eight law firms deemed "class counsel" argued in court filings that they alone should be the recipients of attorney's fees in the case.

Attorney Robert Couhig wrote in court filings that his firm's work on the case totaled more than $1 million worth of fees, plus $51,000 in expenses.

But attorney Matthew Hemmer of Morris Bart's law firm also said in court filings that their firm — which initially opposed the class settlement — represented 70% of the plaintiffs and therefore deserved more money. They're requesting nearly $422,000, or 15% of the "common benefit fees" available, plus $65,000 in court costs.

Each attorney met privately last week with Knight to plead their case for how much in fees they deserve.