By LAURENCE DARMIENTO

Staff Reporter

Fountain View Inc., the Burbank-based nursing home operator, has hired new management as it restructures under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Boyd Hendrickson, a former executive with industry giant Beverly Enterprises Inc., takes over this week on behalf of restructuring firm Crossroads LLC of Irvine. Company founder Robert Snukal retired in January but continues to serve on Fountain View’s board.

Hendrickson joins another former Beverly Enterprises executive, Jose Lynch, who was hired in the newly created position of president to focus on the company’s Texas operations.

Fountain View, which operates 49 nursing homes in California and Texas, got into financial trouble last year after getting hit with a hike in liability insurance rates and a dispute with the federal government over Medicare. That prompted it to default on over $200 million in debt incurred after a 1998 merger. It also was hit with a $6.1 million judgment resulting from the death of a resident at one of its homes.

Snukal built Fountain View’s predecessor company, Summit Care Corp., which was bought out in 1998 by Heritage Partners Inc., a Boston-based investor group. Restructuring firm Crossroads was brought in after the October 2001 bankruptcy filing.

Company officials did not return repeated requests for comment.