October 19, 2026
A New York state jury reached a $6.8 million verdict against a nursing home accused of understaffing its approximately 62-bed facility and causing severe patient neglect, counsel for a certified class of residents at the facility announced Friday.
The verdict encompasses $3.2 million in compensatory damages and $3.6 million in punitive damages against Sapphire Nursing at Wappingers LLC and one of its owners, Richard Platschek, according to the announcement by the plaintiffs’ counsel. The nursing home defendants believe the verdict was “against the weight of evidence” and are pursuing post-trial motions, an attorney for the defendants told Law360 on Friday.
Leslie Kroeger of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll LLP, representing the plaintiff class in the suit, thanked the jury for reaching a “thoughtful and deliberate verdict and damages award.”
“We hope this verdict sets an important precedent for nursing home and assisted living facilities in New York,” Kroeger said in a statement Friday. “If they do not abide by state law requirements to properly operate their facilities and care for residents, we will help residents hold them accountable. Nursing home residents deserve quality care and treatment. It’s the law.”
Copies of the verdict sheets weren’t publicly available Friday.
Rendered Wednesday, the verdict followed a seven-day trial in Dutchess County on a claim against the nursing home and its four owners — Machla Abramczyk, Esther Farkovits, Robert Schuck and Richard Platschek — under New York Public Health Law 2801-d. That statute enshrines a private right of action for patients to sue residential healthcare facilities.
The verdict comes after a state court certified a class of patients who were treated at Sapphire between 2017 and 2020. The class was led by Susan Schmidt, whose mother resided at the facility prior to her death in 2021.
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Schmidt and the plaintiff class are represented by Leslie M. Kroeger, Takisha D. Richardson, Rachael Flanagan and Diana L. Martin of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll LLP and Jeremiah Frei-Pearson, John Sardesai-Grant and Erin Kelley of Finkelstein Blankinship Frei-Pearson & Garber LLP.
Read NY Nursing Home Hit With $6.8M Verdict In Understaffing Case.