Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Partner Melissa J. Brown and Associate Brittney A. Nochimson obtained dismissal of a class action, COVID-19 lawsuit against their clients, a long-term care facility and its owners.
The plaintiff, the estate of a former patient, brought a class action medical malpractice lawsuit against the facility and its owners, alleging that they failed to take adequate actions to protect patients from the COVID-19 virus during the spring of 2020. Therein, the plaintiff asserted negligence claims, including wrongful death and punitive damages claims, against the facility, its owners, and unidentified licensed personnel at the facility.
After the conclusion of two Ferreira Conferences, Brown and Nochimson filed a motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ complaint for failure to file a compliant affidavit of merit (“AOM”), arguing that the plaintiffs’ AOM was deficient under New Jersey’s AOM statute and the Appellate Division’s recent ruling in Hargett v. Hamilton Park OPCO, LLC, 477 N.J. Super. 390 (App. Div. 2023). Specifically, GRSM’s team argued that the plaintiffs’ AOM was deficient because it failed to identify any licensed individuals for whom the facility could have been held vicariously liable and because the statutory timeframe for the plaintiffs to obtain a compliant AOM had long expired. Brown and Nochimson further argued that the complaint failed to allege any facts or causes of action to sustain a claim for punitive damages or claims against the facility’s owners directly.
After a full briefing and oral argument, the court agreed with the GRSM team’s arguments and granted the defendants’ motion in full, dismissing all claims against the facility and its owners with prejudice and prohibiting the plaintiffs from filing an amended complaint.