Family awarded $110M following death of 100-year-old grandmother left wandering outside her senior care facility

The family of a 100-year-old lady with Alzheimer’s who died of hypothermia after she wandered out of her nursing home, only to have an automatic door locked behind her, was awarded $110 million by a jury Tuesday.

Mildred Hernandez died alone in the cold after wandering out into 38 degree weather from Greenhaven Estates in Sacramento where she lived for over five years.

Just two days before Valentines Day 2019 shortly before 6:00 a.m., the 100-year-old was found outside of Greenhaven Estates beyond an exit door that automatically locked, preventing her re-entry into the facility The Post learned.  

Hernandez was transported to a hospital where she was unresponsive and cold to the touch. Emergency room doctors were unable to obtain a body temperature or a pulse. The 100-year-old was pronounced dead at 7:30 a.m., according to the complaint.

The jury decided on the massive award after finding Formation Capital and Colony Capital responsible for her neglect and wrongful death.

The award totaled $100 million in punitive damages and $10 million more in compensatory damages.  

“This $110 million verdict confirms what we knew from day one: Mildred Hernandez died alone in the cold because the large public REIT and private equity companies that were responsible for overseeing Greenhaven Estates turned a blind eye to operations at the facility that had been dangerous to residents for several years before Mildred’s death,” said attorney Ed Dudensing. 

Formation Capital was the asset manager, and Colony Capital was the beneficial owner of Greenhaven. Estates. 

Hernandez was born on Christmas Eve in 1918.

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