Each of these cases is significant enough to merit its own post, but since they came down within a week of each other, we’re discussing both of them here. They are: Gahl v. Aurora Health Care, Inc. ___ N.W.2d ___, 2023 Wisc. LEXIS 137 (Wis. May 2, 2023), and M.T. v. Walmart Stores, Inc., ___ P.3d ___, 2023 WL 3135662 (Kan. App. April 28, 2023).Continue Reading Two New Appellate COVID-Related Developments
PREP Act
A Short and Plain Statement About the PREP Act

This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires that a complaint contain “a short and plain statement of the claim, showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” TwIqbal requires a complaint contain sufficient facts to make the claim for relief “plausible on its face.” …
New Mexico Federal Court Makes The PREP Act Right Again

The world order has been restored. The clouds have parted, and all today is in perfect resonant harmony. Ok, we are exaggerating. A lot. But we are pleased to report that at least one federal district court has correctly interpreted and applied the PREP Act. We are sure you are as relieved as we are. …
Third Circuit Rejects PREP Act Complete Preemption in Nursing Home Case

Last week the Third Circuit became the first federal appellate court to decide the question of whether federal courts have jurisdiction over COVID-related tort litigation. It concluded they did not. Maglioli v. Alliance HC Holdings LLC, — F.4th –, 2021 WL 4890189 (3d. Cir. Oct. 20, 2021). A decision directly at odds with…
E.D. Pa. Rejects PREP Act Immunity in Nursing Home Case

A month ago we thought our country had turned the corner on Covid-19. Not so. The plague continues. Bad show, America. We’re sick of Covid, sick of reading about Covid, sick of the controversies, sick of the deprivations, and, most of all, sick of all the disease and death. We won’t say we’re sick of…
Law in the Time of The Covid

We got our second anti-Covid jab this week, so we’ll celebrate by discussing a COVID/PREP Act case. The PREP Act (PREP stands for “Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness”) declaration of immunity is limited to “covered countermeasures” obtained either through agreement with the federal government or otherwise in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of…
Breaking News − Major Expansion Of PREP Act Immunity

We’ve already commented about the broad scope of tort immunity conferred by the March, 2020 Notice of Declaration under the Public Readiness & Emergency Preparedness Act (“PREP Act”), 42 U.S.C. §247d-6d. That original immunity covered all aspects of government-related or sponsored production and use of anti-COVID countermeasures. It was, as one of our colleagues put…
First PREP Act Immunity Decision That We’ve Seen

Back in March, we discussed the Administration’s declaration of tort immunity under the “PREP Act” (42 U.S.C. §§247d-6a, et seq.) for “countermeasures” combating the COVID-19 epidemic. Today, we’re discussing the first cast that we know of to construe this declaration.
That case is Estate of Maglioli v. Andover Subacute Rehabilitation Center I, 2020…
We Finally Have Something To Say About COVID-19

We haven’t had a word to say on the Blog about the biggest health story in the world. That was because, until now, there wasn’t a product liability angle to it. That’s now changed. On March 17, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) published in the Federal Register a “notice of…