Attorney can't be sued over Filipino nurses' quitting

A Westbury attorney whose advice to Filipino immigrant nurses about quitting en masse from a nursing home became the subject of a Suffolk criminal prosecution later declared unconstitutional will not have to face a lawsuit accusing him of organizing the resignations, a judge has ruled.

State Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bucaria last Thursday ruled that immigration attorney Felix Vinluan's legal advice was immune from a lawsuit filed by Woodmere-based SentosaCare, one of the state's biggest nursing home groups. Sentosa had accused him of persuading large numbers of nurses to resign to hurt its business.

A jubilant Vinluan Tuesday called the ruling "vindication."

Bucaria, in Mineola, also ruled that 38 nurses who have quit their jobs at 11 SentosaCare nursing homes in the New York City area will not face penalties of $25,000 each for resigning before the end of their three-year contracts.

SentosaCare, through an affiliated agency, arranged the nurses' work visas, paid for their air travel to the United States and found housing for them in New York. The nurses complained that their living conditions, their pay and their assignments were different from promised.

The dispute drew international headlines when Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota announced criminal charges against Vinluan and 10 nurses who resigned on the same day in April 2006 from Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Smithtown.

In January 2009, a state appellate court stripped Spota of power to continue with the prosecution, ruling Vinluan's advice was protected by the First Amendment and the nurses' resignations by the ban on involuntary servitude.

Bucaria's decision does not mean the nurses will not face any penalty for resigning, but they must be found to have broken their contract and damages will be based on SentosaCare's costs, said the nurses' attorney James Druker of Garden City. "It means that [SentosaCare's] case is eviscerated," he said. "The absolute most they can recover from the nurses now is a couple thousand from the airfare and the cost of getting them visas."

SentosaCare did not respond to requests for comment.

Mark Dela Cruz, of Queens, one of the 10 nurses who resigned from Avalon and narrowly avoided prosecution, said of Bucaria's ruling: "It's good news and a big relief, but I don't think we should be paying them anything at all." Vinluan and the Avalon nurses have filed a federal lawsuit against Spota, SentosaCare and its owners for wrongful prosecution.

Four years in the case

April 2006 - Lawsuit against Vinluan is thrown out, and judge rules the nurses will not face $25,000 penalties for resigning.