Inset: Felipe Dip (Dolan Funeral Home). Background: Chestnut Park at Cleveland Circle in Brighton, Mass. (Google Maps).
It took more than a week before any staff at a Massachusetts assisted living facility realized a 64-year-old resident had died in his room, a lawsuit alleges.
By the time workers found Felipe Dip dead in July 2023, his "body was badly decomposed," the suit claims. Now his sons are suing Chestnut Park at Cleveland Circle in Brighton, its parent company Benchmark Senior Living LLC, and the unknown employee responsible for Dip's care, alleging negligence.
The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, alleges that staff should have known something was wrong when Dip stopped showing up for scheduled meals. According to the suit, Dip missed about 27 meals over a nine-day period. The facility's protocol allegedly states that staff must conduct a welfare check on residents if they miss meals, but no such welfare checks were completed, the lawsuit states.
Dip's room also was equipped with motion sensors. The last time there was any movement in Dip's room was on July 12, 2023, the plaintiffs' lawyers say.
"The combination of Felipe Dip's prolonged and repeated failure to appear for meals and the nine-day absence of any motion in his room provided the Defendants with ample and repeated notice that Felipe Dip required immediate attention," the suit said.
Staff discovered Dip dead on July 21, 2023.
"By that time, his body was badly decomposed," lawyer Thomas E. Flaws of the Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah law firm wrote. "Felipe Dip's body had been decomposing in his room, undiscovered, for approximately nine days."
Flaws accuses the facility of negligence, saying it "owed a duty of reasonable care" to monitor the resident's condition and "conduct regular welfare checks, ensure his attendance at scheduled meals, and respond to any indication that Felipe Dip might be in distress or in need of attention."
Dip's death and the way it transpired have been tremendously upsetting for his two sons, who are also alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress.
"The Defendants' negligent failure to monitor, check on, or otherwise attend to Felipe Dip for a period of approximately nine days — notwithstanding his repeated failure to appear for meals and the complete absence of any motion detected in his room — was conduct so far beyond the bounds of reasonable care as to foreseeably cause severe emotional distress to members of Felipe Dip's immediate family," the lawsuit states.
Benchmark Senior Living is disputing the allegations leveled against its facility.
"The health and safety of our residents is our top priority. Though we cannot comment fully on the merits of active litigation, we strongly disagree with the description of the events and allegations contained in the lawsuit and will defend against them," the company said in a statement to local CBS affiliate WBZ.
But Flaws said the family deserves answers about what occurred.
"Mr. Dip was entrusted to the care of an assisted living facility that families rely on to keep their loved ones safe," he said in a statement to WBZ. "The allegations in this case raise serious questions about whether that trust was honored. Our focus now is on a thorough and transparent examination of the facts. The family deserves answers, and we intend to pursue them through the legal process."