We have written in this blog before about the major problems caused by the Byzantine and mind-dizzying fashion by which corporate ownership has been altered in recent years in the nursing home industry. All of this started as a result of a number of articles printed in healthcare law journals which literally provided a step-by-step recipe through which unscrupulous nursing home owners could hide behind multiple corporations to avoid accountability for injuries and even deaths which occur in their nursing homes. As I negotiate a number of very significant cases, many owners seem to feel a false sense of security that their conduct is immune from consequence because of the so called “corporate walls” placed between them and the very people harmed by underfunded, poorly staffed and systemically failing homes. The reality is that we cannot and will not allow this lack of accountability to occur. More and more we are uncovering evidence to demonstrate that the so called “investors” of these homes also operate them and cause them to be dramatically underfunded. The Supreme Court of Illinois provided an excellent ruling in allowing for direct liability of owners of an enterprise which underfunded its franchisees and thus allowed two people to be killed as a result of worker safety violations. Although the Illinois Supreme Court case did not involve a nursing home, the concepts are no different. Owners who intentionally allow profits to be placed over the welfare of people cannot and will not escape responsibility for their conduct.