Plaintiffs commenced the action in Richmond County, alleging that a patient died after being exposed to COVID-19 in a nursing home in April 2020. Our office successfully obtained dismissal twice on the grounds that plaintiff lacked capacity to commence the action as a proposed administrator. Plaintiffs commenced the action a third time as co-administrators of the estate, and we moved to dismiss based on the COVID-19 immunities provided by the EDTPA and the PREP Act.

The detailed nursing home chart demonstrated that the patient received all available COVID-19 treatments, and the executive director and attending physician affirmed that all aspects of the patient’s care were impacted by the nursing home’s COVID-19 response in April 2020. The Court concurred and rejected plaintiffs’ arguments that we had not conclusively established the impact of COVID-19 protocols on the individual patient and that the nursing home had been systemically understaffed, making it difficult to isolate and treat COVID-19 patients. The Court also found that the nursing home had acted in good faith, as established by the witness affirmations, the chart itself, and the family’s expressions of gratitude to the nursing home, as documented in the chart and in the patient’s obituary. This decision is consistent with prevailing Second Department caselaw.