Covid-19 Suit Removal Dashed in Pennsylvania Prisoner Litigation

A prison health-care provider can’t litigate a Covid-19 wrongful death lawsuit in federal court.

The federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act doesn’t create exclusive federal jurisdiction for state-law negligence claims, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said.

Beverly Cooper’s complaint also didn’t sufficiently allege the type of “wrongful misconduct” that would have brought the suit within the PREP Act’s purview, the court said.

Every federal appeals court to have considered the jurisdictional question has held that general negligence cases must be tried in state court unless there is a non-PREP Act reason for them to ...