For Immediate Release
After eight years of heavily contested litigation, Plaintiffs in Stiner v. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. have obtained a ground-breaking class action settlement in federal court in Oakland with Brookdale Senior Living, Inc., ending violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”) and obtaining other relief. Brookdale, publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, is the largest provider of assisted living for senior citizens and persons with disabilities in the U.S. It owns or operates approximately 40 residential care facilities for the elderly in California.
On October 24, 2025, Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued an Order Granting Unopposed Motions for Final Approval of Class Action Settlement for Injunctive Relief, for Attorneys Fees, Costs and Expenses, and for Class Representative Incentive Awards. The Order can be found here.
The class action settlement that the Court approved provides comprehensive injunctive relief. It grows out of multiple rulings by Judge Gilliam that the ADA applies to assisted living facilities—the first such holdings in contested proceedings. See, e.g., Stiner v. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc., 354 F. Supp. 3d 1046, 1058-59 (N.D. Cal. 2019); Stiner v. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc., No. 17-CV-03962-HSG, 2024 WL 5112480, at *4 n.4 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 13, 2024). The settlement likely marks the first time an assisted living facility has been required to make renovations to comply with the ADA’s access standards.
Under the settlement, Brookdale will physically modify three of its California facilities—Brookhurst, San Ramon, and Scotts Valley— by bringing their interior and exterior common areas into full compliance with the 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Standards. Brookdale will also renovate several residential units across all three facilities to comply with the ADA’s accessibility standards, including through the addition of roll-in showers and removing lips that barred access to balconies. All construction must be completed within five years.
Any individual with a vision or mobility disability at one of these three facilities may now request and obtain a unit compliant with the ADA at no additional cost. As a result of the litigation, Brookdale changed the wording of its residency agreements to remove language that previously required residents to pay for ADA renovations they needed. Brookdale also agreed to make permanent a policy that it changed as a result of the litigation: Brookdale will now permanently allow residents to remain on wheelchairs, scooters, or other powered mobility aids when transiting on Brookdale’s vehicles, instead of being required to get out of their wheelchairs despite their disabilities.
The two Plaintiffs who still live at Brookdale facilities also obtained significant changes to Brookdale’s emergency evacuation procedures at their facilities. These changes include safety equipment, accessible transportation, and notice requirements regarding emergency evacuations at Brookdale San Ramon and Brookdale Scotts Valley. The two Plaintiffs also obtained two significant victories that make Brookdale’s staffing levels more transparent. First, Brookdale now must use more transparent language when communicating with current or prospective residents about staffing at San Ramon and Scotts Valley. Second, Plaintiffs established a reporting mechanism under which Brookdale will provide information about staffing at those two facilities to Plaintiffs’ counsel for two years.
At the October 16, 2025 Fairness Hearing the Court stated: “[T]his case has been with me almost as long as I’ve been a federal judge. … This was obviously a very hard fought case, very ambitious case, very skillfully litigated case on both parts, and I just want to commend the parties for coming together and figuring out a resolution in the case that in my view is a very positive one….”
The Court’s October 24, 2025, order found that the injunctive relief obtained is “significant” and provides “substantial benefits.” The Court approved incentive payments to the three class representatives and reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses to Plaintiffs’ counsel. The parties are currently working to ensure that the plans for the remediation of the three facilities are ADA-compliant so that construction can begin.
Plaintiffs and their families came to Brookdale because they required assistance with their activities of daily living including medication management, dressing, bathing, toileting, hygiene, food preparation, laundry, and transportation. But Plaintiffs alleged that Brookdale failed to provide many of these services and discriminated against persons with disabilities in myriad ways, including by failing to address multiple barriers in their living quarters and throughout the facilities, restricting the number of persons in wheelchairs who can take weekly outings, forcing residents in motorized wheelchairs to transfer when riding the bus, and failing to provide sufficient staff to care for persons with cognitive and other disabilities. Plaintiffs alleged that Brookdale engaged in a policy and practice of violating Title III of the ADA, accompanying regulations, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, committed Elder Financial Abuse, and engaged in Unlawful, Unfair and Fraudulent Business Practices.
The impact of Brookdale’s practices is described by family members here: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/nations-largest-senior-living-operator-accused-of-neglect-and-abuse/2729639/. Concerns about using an algorithm for staffing assisted living facilities are described here.
“When we began investigating Brookdale eight years ago, we heard tragic stories of elderly individuals being left unattended in their own waste or falling and suffering injuries. As a result of this settlement, the affected Brookdale facilities will be safer places for elders and dependent adults to live going forward. We are grateful to Brookdale for acknowledging the importance of ADA accommodations and for rolling up its sleeves and getting to work on these three facilities,” said co-lead counsel Gay Crosthwait Grunfeld of Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld. “The rulings by this court, and the settlement achieved, will serve as a nationwide model for individuals seeking accessible and safe assisted living facilities. We look forward to continuing our work with Brookdale to ensure that all ADA remediation is done promptly and well,” said co-lead counsel Guy Wallace of Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim.
The named plaintiffs are individuals and family members, senior citizens and dependent adults. The three class representatives are:
- Bernie Jestrabek-Hart, 79, who has been a resident of Brookdale Scotts Valley since October 2015.
- Jeanette Algarme, 81, who resided at Brookdale Brookhurst until October 2020.
- Stacia Stiner, 55, who has resided at Brookdale Scotts Valley since 2016.
The other plaintiffs are:
- Michele Lytle, whose father Edward Boris lived in Brookdale Fountaingrove’s assisted living facility in Santa Rosa, California from September 2015 to August 2016, before moving into the facility’s Skilled Nursing Facility where he died in 2018.
- Ralph Schmidt, who suffered a traumatic brain injury causing him to become blind and cognitively impaired. He was a resident of the assisted living facility at Brookdale Tracy from 2011 through October 2017. His interests are being represented by professional fiduciary Heather Fisher.
- Patricia (“Pat”) Lindstrom, 88, whose husband of 61 years, Arthur Lindstrom, lived at Brookdale Scotts Valley from November 2015 until he died in February 2018.
- Ralph Carlson, whose mother Helen Carlson lived in Brookdale Fountaingrove’s assisted living and memory care facilities in Santa Rosa, California, from 2011 until she died in 2019.
- Loresia Vallette, whose grandfather Lawrence Quinlan lived at the assisted living facility then known as Brookdale Hemet from 2015 until 2017.
The case is Stiner v. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc., U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Case #3:17-cv-03962-HSG.
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Media Contacts:
Gay Crosthwait Grunfeld ROSEN BIEN GALVAN & GRUNFELD LLP (415) 433-6830 ggrunfeld@rbgg.com
Guy B. Wallace SCHNEIDER WALLACE COTTRELL KIM LLP (415) 421-7100 gwallace@schneiderwallace.com
Kathryn A. Stebner STEBNER GERTLER & GUADAGNI (415) 362-9800 kathryn@sgg-lawfirm.com
David T. Marks MARKS, BALETTE, YOUNG & MOSS (713) 681-3070 davidm@marksfirm.com