MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Legal Newsline) - An Alabama hospital can claim immunity under a law protecting healthcare providers against any lawsuit that “arises from or is related to Coronavirus,” even if the claim is that a plaintiff fell on the walkway out of an infusion therapy center.
Ruling narrowly on the question of whether the hospital could present an affirmative defense against the slip-and-fall case by citing the Alabama COVID-19 Immunity Act (ACIA), the Alabama Supreme Court said it could.
Voncille and Don Askew sued Triad of Alabama, the owner of Flowers Hospital, after Voncille tripped and fell after in September 2021 after receiving monoclonal antibody infusion therapy. The plaintiff was exiting through a doorway labeled “Infusion entry” that was intended to isolate COVID-19 positive patients from the rest of the hospital.
Triad responded by citing ACIA, which says healthcare providers “shall not be liable for any damages, injury, or death suffered by any person or entity as a result of, or in connection with, a health emergency claim.” The law says the definition of “health emergency claim” “includes but is not limited to” exposure to COVID-19, services provided on- or off-premises and efforts to prevent its spread.
A Houston County judge rejected Triad’s defense and the company sought mandamus review from the Alabama Supreme Court, which granted it in a Jan. 26 decision by Justice Will Sellers. The court rejected the plaintiffs’ argument the ACIA should be read narrowly to provide immunity only against claims arising from Covid-19 infections, citing the “includes but is not limited to” language.
Justice Jay Mitchell concurred in the result, but said the majority opinion didn’t indicate any limits to the breadth of immunity under ACIA.
“Those limitations are especially important here,” he wrote. “Almost every claim made since March 2020 can be traced back to Coronavirus given that the virus and the governmental response affected the entire world for the better part of three years.”