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US appeals court rules against nursing homes over COVID-19 lawsuits

  • [서울=아시아뉴스통신] 레악카나 기자
  • 송고시간 2021-10-23 03:40
  • 뉴스홈 > 국제
A man wearing a protective face mask stands outside the Andover Subacute and Rehab Center, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Andover, New Jersey, on Apr 16, 2020. (File photo by= REUTERS/Stefan Jeremiah)

[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] A federal appeals court on Wednesday (Oct 21) said cases against two New Jersey facilities should proceed in state courts, in a setback to nursing-home operators facing hundreds of COVID-19 negligence and wrongful-death lawsuits, Reuters reported.

The nursing homes had argued that the suits against them belonged in federal court, citing an emergency US law known as the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, which shields those fighting the pandemic from lawsuits. The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia affirmed a lower court ruling and rejected the nursing homes' argument that the PREP Act was so far-reaching that families' state-law negligence claims were really federal claims that belonged in federal court. The families "asserted only garden-variety state-law claims, so state court is where these cases belong," the court said. Wednesday's ruling could help get cases moving, said Adam Pulver of Public Citizen Litigation Group, a consumer advocacy group that filed an amicus brief with the appeals court.  Lann McIntyre, a Lewis Brisbois attorney who represented the nursing homes, declined to comment.


The cases were among the first against nursing homes, where more than 100,000 people died during the pandemic. Like hundreds of similar wrongful death claims against care facilities, the cases stalled over which court should hear the lawsuit.