New York, NY—In August 2013, a Dentons New York Litigation team led by partner Sandra Hauser achieved a pro bono victory against the New York State Department of Health and the State’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), on behalf of a citywide class of needy individuals who rely on Medicaid-funded home health services. The case, Shakhnes et. al. v. Eggleston et. al., had been ongoing since the initial 2006 class action complaint was filed in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York.

Boris Shakhnes, the lead Named Plaintiff, suffered from multiple sclerosis and waited more than seven months for the State Defendants to even schedule a Fair Hearing after his doctor’s request for an increase in care was denied. During the many months he went without the care to which he was legally entitled, Mr. Shakhnes suffered greatly, enduring severe pain, bedsores and anxiety, all of which posed serious threats to his health and safety. Another lead Plaintiff, Fei Mock, who suffers from severe scoliosis that renders her unable to walk or stand on her own, also waited more than six months before her evidentiary hearing was even scheduled.

Ms. Hauser, along with co-counsel at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), led a pro bono team on behalf of the Plaintiffs, who were individuals requiring critical home health services such as eating, ambulating, turning over in bed or reaching their doctors’ offices. The team argued that New York systemically and unlawfully violated federal statutes and regulations that require resolution of appeals from adverse determinations within 90 days after those appeals are made. These administrative delays—some exceeding one year—risked depriving needy individuals of services that their doctors deem medically necessary.

In September 2010, after extensive litigation and hearings, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York certified the class and permanently enjoined the State of New York to provide timely home health services to all New York City applicants and recipients of home care in September 2010, with then-Judge Richard Holwell ruling: “Just as justice delayed is justice denied, so too is action delayed action denied.”

The pro bono Dentons team continued to work extensively on the case, defending one of the core rulings of the District Court against an appeal in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and against the State’s Petition for Certiorari to the US Supreme Court claiming that Plaintiffs lacked the right to sue. The case finally closed victoriously in August 2013, with an award to Plaintiffs’ counsel of US$1.75 million in attorneys’ fees and costs from State Defendants. Dentons donated the fee portion to NYLAG.

Ms. Hauser led Dentons’ team on this matter, on appeal for the last seven years, most recently with the help of New York Litigation partner Richard Zuckerman, managing associate Melanie McCammon and paralegal Karen Ogle.

The Dentons team has devoted almost 6,500 hours to Shakhnes to date. Moving forward, Ms. Hauser and the Dentons team will work with NYLAG to monitor compliance to the decision.

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