SPRINGFIELD – Supreme Court Justices won’t review an appellate court decision that shrank a class action for nursing home workers from 21 locations to one.
The Justices denied an appeal petition of plaintiff Saroya Roberson on March 25, confirming that she represents only employees of Sycamore Village in Swansea.
She claims Sycamore Village collected and used her biometric information in violation of state privacy law.
Former chief judge John Baricevic, son C. J. Baricevic, and John Driscoll of St. Louis represent her.
She sued Symphony Sycamore, owner of Sycamore Village, in 2017.
She also sued Symphony Post Acute Care Network, claiming its Illinois nursing homes carried on integrated interlocking activities.
In March 2019, St. Clair County Associate Judge Kevin Hoerner certified her to represent a primary class for the network and a secondary class for Sycamore Village.
He found that division of defendants into employers and non employers meant nothing for purposes of privacy law.
He found that any assertion as to who did or didn’t operate any given location begged the question the suit would answer.
In November, Fifth District judges found Hoerner mistook the network for an entity capable of breaking the law.
Justice Randy Moore wrote that Sycamore Village was the only nursing home owned by a defendant.
“It is unclear from the record what the common questions are as to class members employed by entities who are not named in this lawsuit,” Moore wrote.
He wrote that while there might be some relationship between entities that own other locations, the lawsuit didn’t name those entities.
He estimated the Sycamore Village class at 500 current and former employees.
If that number represents an average for the network, Hoerner’s order would have covered 10,500 persons.
Justices David Overstreet and Thomas Welch concurred with Moore.
Attorneys Joseph Donado and Richard McArdle, both of Chicago, represent Sycamore Village along with Brian Kalb of Edwardsville.