U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed a lawsuit against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) that blamed his administration for COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes.
“As explained herein, and despite the Court’s deepest sympathy for Plaintiffs and their families, the fact remains that their proffered claims are not legally viable,” the judge wrote.
“The amended complaint contains no allegations that the nursing homes, as the alleged perpetrators of ‘private violence,’ committed a state-sanctioned violent act that caused decedents harm,” Failla explained. “Instead, the amended complaint merely pleads action that ‘increased the likelihood’ that decedents would be unsafe.”
“The Court’s sympathy for Plaintiffs and their loved ones simply cannot supplant governing law,” she said.
Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesman, said in a statement, “Anytime this issue gets taken out of the press or in the political area and into the courts, the truth wins.” He claimed that “justice has prevailed.”
Cuomo testified before Congress in September.
Prior to the hearing, the now-dissolved Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic said the testimony would center on Cuomo’s “issuance of unscientific guidance that forced New York nursing homes and long-term care facilities to admit COVID-19 positive patients.”
Committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) said at the time that Cuomo “owes answers to the 15,000 families who lost loved ones in New York’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” Cuomo’s 2020 mandate reads. “NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
