New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is facing a wrongful death lawsuit over a controversial policy that required nursing homes to admit recently discharged hospital patients who tested positive for COVID-19.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey by the estate of Russell Murray against Murphy, New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli and Merry Heart Senior Care, a 113-bed nursing home in Succasunna, NJ.
Murphy in late March 2020 issued an executive order that prohibited post-acute care facilities from denying admission or readmission of residents who had tested positive for COVID-19.
Murray, 88, was a resident at the facility and caught COVID-19 in April 2020. He died of the disease in June 2020 and was the 17th resident to die from COVID-19 on his floor, according to court documents.
New Jersey, along with several other states including New York, faced backlash from top US health officials and providers immediately after the policies were implemented, with many alleging they would lead to more deaths. The states reversed course later in 2020 after much criticism.
The lawsuit argues that, despite the directive potentially leading to unnecessary deaths, the state “dogmatically in a tone-deaf fashion, exercised deliberate indifference by implementing the directive anyway.” The suit also accused Merry Heart of being “grossly negligent,” which aided in Murray’s death.
“[New Jersey] had all of the expert information on what to do, and cannot say that they were not warned, and as a result, cannot credibly assert an objectively reasonable reliance on existing law. There is no doubt that through the directive, the nursing homes were thrown under the bus,” court documents state.
Neither the state nor Merry Heart have yet to respond to the lawsuit. New Jersey earlier this year settled a lawsuit with families of 119 residents against a state-run veterans nursing home over the facility’s handling of an early COVID-19 outbreak for $53 million.
The latest lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages, consequential damages, punitive damages and coverage for attorney’s fees and costs of the litigation.
