NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Families of victims of a deadly nursing home fire last year settled 28 of 32 lawsuits against the company that owned the facility, lawyers announced Thursday.
Settlement details were not immediately released. A late-morning news conference was scheduled.
Eight people were killed in the Sept. 25, 2003, fire at NHC HealthCare Center, owned by Murfreesboro-based National HealthCare Corp., and another seven residents died in the months following.
The cause of the fire has never been officially determined, and investigators closed their probe in June. The families had accused National HealthCare Corp. of negligence.
David Randolph Smith, lead counsel for the families of 17 fire victims, and mediator Lew Conner told Judge Barbara Haynes that 14 death cases and all 14 injury cases were resolved.
``NHC was willing to explore an alternative resolution procedure that saved the parties, witnesses and experts tremendous time and expenses,'' Smith said in a statement.
Three of the unsettled lawsuits are still in mediation, and the other has not yet entered mediation, the statement said.
The nursing home did not have a sprinkler system, and none was required at the time. After that fire and another in January at a retirement home, Tennessee passed laws ordering such equipment in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.
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