Washington, D.C. — For families who lost loved ones in New York nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, Monday brought another painful ending to a years-long legal fight.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a wrongful death lawsuit targeting former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration and the Greater New York Hospital Association over a March 2020 directive that ordered nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients returning from hospitals. The high court’s refusal to take up the case means lower court rulings — which dismissed the suit on qualified immunity grounds — now stand.
The Case Behind the Decision
The lawsuit was brought by Daniel Arbeeny of Brooklyn, whose father Norman died at 89 after being discharged from a Cobble Hill nursing home where COVID-positive patients had been housed. The complaint, filed on behalf of residents who died during the first wave of the pandemic, argued that the Cuomo administration violated the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act — the federal statute that guarantees nursing home residents’ rights to safety, dignity, and protection.
Lower courts dismissed the case, ruling that qualified immunity shielded Cuomo, his former health commissioner Howard Zucker, and his former secretary from liability for actions taken in their official government roles. The Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene leaves that determination intact.
“The Supreme Court doesn’t erase what was done and the truth of what happened,” Arbeeny told reporters Tuesday. “Nine thousand COVID-positive patients were forced into nursing homes with deadly consequences.”
Cuomo’s Camp Declares Victory
Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi was quick to declare the decision a vindication. “Every investigation and every court to examine these claims has reached the same conclusion: there was no wrongdoing by Governor Cuomo or his administration,” Azzopardi said. “Today, the Supreme Court joins that list.”
Cuomo’s 2020 order — which banned nursing homes from denying readmission to patients solely because of a COVID diagnosis — was rescinded six weeks after it was issued. Critics argued the delay was deadly. A bipartisan report later concluded that Cuomo and his aides had “recklessly” exposed New York’s most vulnerable residents to the virus.
Why This Still Matters for Nursing Homes
The case’s final resolution highlights how difficult it’s been for families to hold government officials accountable for nursing home deaths — a broader challenge that nursing home accountability advocates know all too well. Whether cases involve state orders or private operators, the legal path to justice for residents and families has consistently been blocked by immunity protections, jurisdictional hurdles, and procedural dismissals.
The pandemic-era policy questions raised by this case — when can officials be held responsible for decisions that expose nursing home residents to harm? — remain unresolved in law, even as the specific case is now closed.
For the families who spent six years pursuing this case, the Supreme Court’s silence wasn’t an answer. It was the end of the line.
