The Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act (“Act”) (20 ILCS 3305/7 (West 2020)) Section 21(c) states: “Any private person, firm or corporation, and any employee or agent of such person, firm or corporation, who renders assistance or advice at the request of the State, or any political subdivision of the State under this Act during an actual or impending disaster, shall not be civilly liable for causing the death of, or injury to, any person or damage to any property except in the event of willful misconduct.”
In its Opinion filed on October 18, 2024, the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois (“Illinois Supreme Court”) held that all health care facilities in Illinois that “rendered assistance” to the State during the COVID-19 disaster declaration are immune from all claims of negligence that arose during that time, even if the claims of negligence had nothing whatsoever to do with the provision of any COVID-19 assistance to the State.
The plaintiffs, as executors and an independent administrator of the estates of the decedents, former residents of the defendant, Geneva Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, LLC, doing business as Bria Health Services of Geneva (“Bria”), filed separate wrongful-death lawsuits against Bria, each alleging in a second amended complaint that Bria negligently and willfully failed to control the spread of COVID-19 in the facility, which led to the deaths of the decedents. According to the complaints, between March and May 2020, each decedent contracted COVID-19 and died from related respiratory complications or respiratory failure (acute hypoxia) while in Bria’s care. The complaints generally asserted that the decedents contracted COVID-19 from Bria’s failure to properly quarantine symptomatic staff members and residents and its failure to implement effective procedures for maintaining hygiene and equipment, including personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gowns, thereby exposing decedents to the virus during this period, which proximately caused the decedents’ deaths.
Bria moved to dismiss and asserted that, at the time of the decedents’ deaths, it was rendering assistance to the State by (1) obtaining and preserving PPE; (2) training staff in the effective and efficient use of PPE; (3) continuing to accept
admissions from acute care hospitals, thereby doing its part to ensure that the pandemic would not overwhelm the Illinois health care system; and (4) taking necessary steps to prevent, contain, and treat the spread of COVID-19 in the
facility. Accordingly, Bria argued it was immune from the claims of ordinary negligence and that those claims must be dismissed by virtue of Executive Order No. 2020-19 and the Act. In support of its motions to dismiss, Bria attached an
affidavit from Patti Long, an administrator at Bria, who testified to various actions Bria took to render assistance to the State during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Illinois Supreme Court held: “We agree with the appellate court that Bria would have immunity from ordinary negligence claims arising during the Governor’s disaster declaration if and only if it can show it was “render[ing] assistance” to the State during this time. Accordingly, we remand to the circuit court to determine the factual question of whether Bria was rendering such assistance.”
Source James v. Geneva Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, LLC, 2024 IL 130042.
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