SHREVEPORT, La. (Legal Newsline) – A Louisiana nursing home blamed for a woman’s COVID death says the lawsuit should be thrown out or transferred to arbitration.
Highland Place Rehab & Nursing Center filed its motion Aug. 4 in Shreveport federal court in the case brought by the family of Annie Lee Becknell, who died May 2, 2020.
The lawsuit alleges Becknell was living at HPRNC to manage long-term health issues when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Eventually, she was exposed to the virus and died because HPRNC did not provide enough personal protection equipment and did not take other necessary precautions, the suit alleges.
“The sudden need for personal protective equipment and diagnostic testing resulted in nationwide shortages which significantly impacted the health care system,” the motion to dismiss says.
“This naturally required providers like Highland to make a variety of granular decisions regarding the allocation and implementation of critical supplies to respond to the pandemic, mitigate the spread of the disease within the confines of its facility, and to the benefit of all staff and residents.”
Negligence claims from Becknell’s family are preempted by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, which allows immunity from “suit and liability under state and federal law” against any claim for loss “caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the administration to or the use by an individual of a covered countermeasure,” the motion says.
The decisions made by staff at HPRNC in response to the pandemic are exactly the type of actions protected by the PREP Act, the defendant says. It urged the judge hearing the case to make this decision as early as possible.
“Delaying this determination until a later stage of the proceedings will only force health care providers to engage in expensive, disruptive and protracted discovery, thus depriving them of the very protections the federal and/or state immunity is intended to provide,” the motion says.
In the alternative, HPRNC wants enforced an arbitration agreement between it and Becknell – a standard hurdle for plaintiffs suing nursing homes.