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First legal action launched against owners of Epping Gardens aged care
By Clay Lucas and David Estcourt
The son of a 92-year-old woman who died of a coronavirus infection acquired at Epping Gardens Aged Care has filed the first Supreme Court writ against the home in Melbourne's north.
Sebastian Agnello will be the lead plaintiff in a class action being brought by Carbone Lawyers, which is representing about 30 families with relatives who have either died at the home or who were living there until recently.
A body is removed last month from Epping Gardens, where the worst coronavirus outbreak in aged care has occurred.Credit: Eddie Jim
Mr Agnello’s legal claim, for stress and anxiety caused by his mother’s death at Epping Gardens, is against Heritage Care, which operates four Melbourne homes.
There have been 205 coronavirus cases in residents and staff working at Epping Gardens, making it Melbourne’s worst outbreak in aged care.
It is understood at least 20 residents there have died after contracting a coronavirus infection, although the death toll could not be confirmed.
Heritage Care could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Mr Agnello said in his writ that the company had failed to place his mother in isolation to protect her from a COVID-19 infection.
Ms Agnello died on July 28, a week after the Department of Health and Human Services first acknowledged an outbreak at the home.
Carmela Agnello, who died last month after contracting a coronavirus infection at Epping Gardens aged care home.
Epping Gardens, Mr Agnello said in the writ, had allowed staff and residents to not wear personal protective equipment even though aware there was a pandemic.
The aged care home had also allowed workers and residents to “move freely within Epping Gardens when there was a risk of spreading contamination and contracting a COVID-19 infection”.
The writ also alleges Epping Gardens allowed staff from other aged care facilities to enter the home without self-isolating, and permitted a “baby shower” on July 16 and a party at the home on July 18 – even though entry was meant to be restricted to essential workers and residents.
Epping Gardens' parent company, Heritage Care Pty Ltd, which has nine for-profit aged care homes across Sydney and Melbourne, is directed and owned by multimillionaire aged-care moguls Tony Antonopoulos and Peter Arvanitis.
Families with loved ones in the facility have previously told The Age of dysfunction, poor staffing and poor care before and during the crisis.
Carbone Lawyers partner John Karantzis said the families his company represented had suffered “stress and anxiety as a result of the actions of the management of Epping Gardens. This should not happen again.”