State Claimed Facilities Were Unsafe, Dangerous : Owner Gives Up Legal Fight, Shuts Care Homes

Saying her health and her finances were being exhausted in the legal fight, the owner of two Orange County board-and-care homes on Wednesday gave up her battle with the state to keep the facilities open.

Officials of the state Department of Social Services had sought to close the New Dimensions Care Center homes in Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills since Dec. 7, claiming that both were unsafe, dangerous to residents and operating in violation of state law.

Residents Have Moved Out Owner Audrey Morton had repeatedly denied those charges, but her lawyer announced at a hearing in Los Angeles Wednesday that she could no longer afford the emotional and financial strain and surrendered operating licenses for both facilities.

By surrendering her licenses, Morton ended the hearing--called to allow her to defend her operation of the homes--just as it was getting under way. Department of Social Services attorneys said the move was legally equivalent to a defendant in a criminal case pleading “no contest.”

All 11 residents of the homes have already moved out, Morton’s lawyer, Robert E. Smith, said. The homes were ordered temporarily closed by a Dec. 7 administrative order, which was later enforced by an Orange County Superior Court preliminary injunction effective Jan. 3.

The two homes ordered closed were at 24711 Eloisa Drive in Mission Viejo and 26101 Hitching Rail Road, Laguna Hills.

Standing by Morton outside the hearing room, Smith said: “She felt that she would have been vindicated (in the hearing), but the cost to her in physical health, in mental health and in dollars and cents would be . . . for what? The businesses are closed. The people are gone. There is no way in the world that she could ever regain that financially. And the state is not about to offer recompense, should they have been found to have done something wrong.”

Smith said the state law that allows the Department of Social Services administratively to order a board-and-care home immediately closed is unconstitutional because it deprives property without allowing a speedy court hearing. State officials have disputed that claim.

“A state Court of Appeal has ruled the California law is constitutional, and the ruling was based on a long line of U.S. Supreme Court cases,” said Deputy Atty. Gen. Richard Spector. “When there is an emergency situation, such as the threat to the health of an elderly person, the government can take action first and then have an administrative hearing.

“It’s based on the same principle that allows government to close a bank--and in bank closings, only finances, not human life, is at stake, Spector said.”