Nevada board OKs $1.6M for 4 settlements

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Board of Examiners on Tuesday approved four legal settlements worth $1.6 million, including $400,000 to the city of San Francisco to settle a patient-busing lawsuit against the state.

Also approved by the board was $615,000 to pay the legal costs of Lambda Legal over its successful challenge to Nevada's gay marriage ban. The organization originally asked for more than $900,000 but the amount was reduced through negotiation.

The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services recently reached the $400,000 settlement San Francisco over Nevada's busing of indigent mental patients to the city in years past. The state also owes about $2 million in legal fees to a firm hired by the Nevada attorney general's office to defend against the case.

The settlement includes attorney fees for San Francisco and still has to be approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Gov. Brian Sandoval said the agreement includes mandates for both parties concerning patient management and movement practices and will bring an amicable end to the matter.

About 500 mentally ill patients were sent to California, including 36 to San Francisco, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in 2013.

The settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing by the state.

On the Lambda Legal settlement, Sandoval was assured that the state's payment does not include any legal costs incurred by the group as a result of the ongoing defense of Nevada's gay marriage ban by the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage.

Sandoval and the attorney general's office eventually decided to drop its opposition to the lawsuit brought by Lambda on behalf of eight Nevada couples who argued that Nevada's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

But the state did fight the lawsuit while it was being reviewed in U.S. District Court.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2014 ruled Nevada's ban was unconstitutional, allowing same-sex marriages to be performed in the state. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that the Constitution requires that same-sex couples be allowed to marry no matter where they live.

Also approved by the board was $400,000 to settle a lawsuit brought against the Nevada State Veterans Home by the family of Craig Robinson regarding his medical care. Robinson, who was 89 and suffered from dementia, maneuvered himself outside the Boulder City home in a wheelchair and got stuck in 100-degree heat. He died as a result of injuries from the incident. He was a former state assemblyman.

The case could have cost $750,000 or more if it went to trial.

Sandoval said the settlement was the right decision given the facts of the case.

"I personally want to apologize on behalf of the state for what has happened," he said.

Another settlement of $195,000 was approved for inmate Dennis McCabe, who claimed indifference to his medical condition of spinal stenosis. The case was recommended for settlement to avoid the costs of a jury trial and the potential of a much larger award that could reach $850,000. McCabe is housed at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in the capital.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801