Third Circuit Finds New Jersey Officials Immune from Lawsuit over COVID-Related Nursing Home Deaths
- January 30, 2026
The New Jersey Governor, Health Commissioner, and other state officials are entitled to qualified immunity from a lawsuit alleging their flawed public policies during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the deaths of thousands of nursing home residents, the Third Circuit held January 23.
The estates of three former nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 brought the action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violations of the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act (FNHRA) and constitutional rights to life, safe conditions, bodily integrity, freedom from state-created danger, and freedom from cruel or degrading treatment.
The complaint attributed the residents’ deaths to policies promulgated by the New Jersey Department of Health that prohibited nursing homes from denying admission or re-admission to patients who tested positive for COVID-19 or requiring hospitalized patients to be tested for COVID-19 before admission or re-admission. According to the complaint, the directive was issued despite warnings that facilities lacked the personal protective equipment to manage patients from hospitals who had the virus.
Approximately 10,000 elderly residents of nursing homes and military veterans’ homes died in New Jersey during the pandemic, which had the highest per-capita death rate in the country, the opinion said. New Jersey later reached a $53 million settlement with families of seniors who died in state-run veterans’ homes.
The district court dismissed the action citing the state defendants’ qualified immunity, which protects government officials performing discretionary functions from civil liability if the conduct at issue does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights that a reasonable person would have known.
Affirming, the Third Circuit said plaintiffs failed to point to any cases putting the state defendants on notice that the policies at issue violated a clearly established constitutional right.
As to FNHRA, the obligations at issue under the statute applied to nursing homes, not government officials. “[I]t is not clearly established that these provisions create rights enforceable against Defendants,” the Third Circuit said.
Moreover, several of the FNHRA provisions were too broadly worded to put the state defendants on notice that their conduct was unlawful.
Estate of DeRosa v. Murphy, No. 25-1283 (3d Cir. Jan. 23, 2026).