San Francisco to Pay Family Claiming Wrongful Death After Laguna Honda Transfers

San Francisco is poised to pay $500,000 to a family that sued for wrongful death and elder abuse after their relative died following his transfer out of Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center.

The settlement is expected to be approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and comes after an overhaul of Laguna Honda, a safety net hospital for low-income patients with complex medical needs, which lost its certification in 2022 after failing a series of safety inspections.

While working to regain good standing, state and federal regulators forced the hospital to prepare for potential closure and some residents were discharged or transferred to other skilled nursing facilities.

Several people died shortly after moving, which some nursing home watchdogs have attributed to a detrimental disruption in care during the relocation process, known as transfer trauma.

“They thought it was necessary to keep Laguna Honda from being shut down by the state. But in fact, what they were doing was more harmful,” said Teresa Palmer, an advocate with the social justice organization Gray Panthers who worked as a physician at Laguna Honda from 1989 to 2004. “They were violating patients’ rights and safety and discharging them illegally to nursing homes where they wouldn’t get as good care.”

The Pham family sued the city and county of San Francisco in 2023, alleging elder abuse and neglect, violation of patients’ rights and wrongful death for their father, Quy Pham, who had moved into Laguna Honda in 2021 and lived with Alzheimer’s disease.

As Laguna Honda worked toward recertification, which it achieved in 2023, state and federal regulators urged the hospital to discharge and transfer patients. According to the complaint, the Pham family was contacted during that time and told that a bed would be available for their father at Seton Hospital in Daly City.

“They didn’t want him to go there, but they reluctantly agreed because they felt pressured,” said Kathryn Stebner, the attorney representing the Pham family.

Their father left Laguna Honda on July 8 and died on July 25 at Seton, the complaint states. He was 80 years old.

“They noticed a quick decline, and he died really quickly after,” Stebner said, adding that Pham required assistance for just about every aspect of daily living. “There are laws and regulations that say what exactly is to be done if someone is transferred and we alleged they did not prepare him for this. If people with dementia are moved, even to a different building, they can go downhill immediately.”

Stebner’s firm initially filed three lawsuits alleging that transfer trauma led to wrongful death after the hospital began transferring patients. Two of those cases were dismissed, and Pham’s case ended with a settlement.

“Although defendants knew of conditions that made [Pham] unable to provide for his own basic needs as described herein, defendants recklessly and egregiously denied and withheld goods or services necessary to meet [Pham]’s basic needs,” the complaint reads.

In November 2025, San Francisco agreed to pay $5.8 million in a class action settlement over elder abuse claims at Laguna Honda between 2016 and 2019.

The Department of Public Health, which runs Laguna Honda, declined to comment and referred KQED to the city attorney’s office.

“We believe the proposed settlement is an appropriate resolution given the inherent costs of continued litigation,” said Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

Stebner said the settlement with the Pham family is the last remaining lawsuit her firm has closed stemming from the turmoil at Laguna Honda while it faced potential closure.

“I’m hoping that by filing all these lawsuits that the families can hold the city and county accountable and I hope we did do that,” Stebner said. “And hopefully this journey is over.”