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Townhouse nursing home to pay $5.5M in wrongful death lawsuit by family of Lucy Riker

The verdict is the second $5.5 million judgment against Townhouse Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing this year.

By Robert Brodskyrobert.brodsky@newsday.com @BrodskyRobertUpdated September 25, 2026 11:37 am

A Nassau jury awarded $5.5 million to the family of a 91-year-old Franklin Square woman who died in hospice weeks after being admitted to a Uniondale nursing home, where she suffered a hip fracture that her daughters' attorney contends was caused by the facility’s chronic understaffing and negligent care.

The verdict, issued this month in State Supreme Court in Nassau County to the family of Lucy Riker, is the second $5.5 million award against Townhouse Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing this year. The verdicts are the highest ever against a Nassau nursing home, according to John Dalli, the attorney in both cases.

Riker’s two daughters filed a wrongful death and negligence suit against the nursing home in 2024.

"We proved that Townhouse violated multiple sections of the public health law in its care and treatment of Lucy, violating her rights as a nursing home resident, causing her serious injury and causing her death," Dalli said. "We also proved they were negligent, causing her preventable pain and suffering."

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

A Nassau jury awarded $5.5 million to the family of a 91-year-old Franklin Square woman who died only weeks after being admitted to Townhouse Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, where she suffered a hip fracture that her daughters' attorney contends was caused by the facility’s chronic understaffing and negligent care.
Lucy Riker's two daughters contend their mother was ignored by the understaffed facility and suffered a fall that would ultimately lead to her death when aides did not respond to her request for help going to the bathroom.
The Sept. 18 verdict is the second $5.5 million award against Townhouse this year. In July, attorneys secured an identical verdict involving the death of a 71-year-old woman whose death was linked to a bedsore she got at the Uniondale facility.

Attorneys for Townhouse Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, a 280-bed facility with a two-star rating by the state Department of Health, did not respond to a request for comment.

Riker, a retired medical assistant, had been living with her husband of 76 years and a daughter in Franklin Square when she suffered a fall in 2022 and sustained a back fracture, Dalli said.

Following her fall, Riker, who had no other serious underlying health issues, was required to wear a back brace when standing and moving around, he said.

The brace, however, caused a bedsore that became infected, leading to a short hospitalization, the suit stated.

After being discharged from the hospital in mid-December, Riker was sent to Townhouse for what was expected to be a short-term rehabilitation before returning home.

Needed assistance

Riker’s two daughters, who visited their mother daily and testified at trial, had given instructions to Townhouse that she should not use a diaper or bedpan, and would need the assistance of two aides to be toileted while still wearing the back brace, Dalli said.

But Dalli said those directions were ignored by the understaffed facility.

The daughters "both witnessed the substandard care their mother received, which included call bells that were never answered; having to toilet their mother themselves because there were too few aides to give them any help; arriving in the morning to find their mother in a urine-soaked and soiled brief; and finding their mother crying and writhing in pain because her pain medication was not properly or timely administered," he said. "And having their complaints met with disdain from the staff and being told by management not to worry and that things would get better."

Instead, Dalli said, the situation deteriorated.

On Jan. 3, 2023, at 4:40 a.m., Riker was found on the floor in her Townhouse room near the bathroom. Riker told her daughters that she had been ringing her call bell to use the bathroom but that, when no one came, she attempted to make it to the toilet on her own.

Riker, records showed, fell backward and hit her head, fracturing her hip.

She had emergency surgery at NYU Langone Hospital in Mineola, but the injury, Dalli said, caused Riker to develop postsurgical delirium and encephalopathy.

Riker died in hospice on Jan. 16, 2023.

In court papers, Townhouse attorneys argued Riker’s injuries were not their responsibility and were caused by the woman’s own "culpable conduct and want of care."

The Sept. 18 jury verdict, which came after a two-week trial, included $2 million each for violations of Riker’s rights and a negligence claim for pain and suffering, along with $1.5 million in punitive damages, records showed.

In July, Dalli also secured a $5.5 million verdict against Townhouse involving the death of a 71-year-old woman who was at the facility for rehabilitation and got a bedsore near her lower back and spine that ended up killing her, records showed.