Two New Jersey nursing care facilities must defend negligence and malpractice claims growing out of residents’ Covid-19 deaths in state court, a federal court in the state said.
The Health and Human Services Department published provisions of the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act in March that are intended to give caregivers immunity from liability for taking certain medical countermeasures in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
But those provisions don’t completely preempt the state common-law claims such that they must be considered to belong exclusively in a federal forum, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey said Wednesday. ...