The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Georgia (Court of Appeals of Georgia, Third Division) · Georgia
- Level
- Court
- Authority
- O.C.G.A. sections 51-16-1 to 51-16-5 (Georgia COVID-19 Pandemic Business Safety Act); O.C.G.A. section 38-3-35(b); the Governor's Executive Orders of March 14 and April 14, 2020
- Issued
- 2022-06-22 June 22, 2022
- Effective
- 2022-06-22
- In force
- June 22, 2022 (no end date recorded; counted as in force for 120 days)
- Limitation types
- Standing dutyOperating condition
- Addressees
- specified businesses (senior-living and healthcare facilities on the facts); every 'entity' within section 51-16-1(4) by the Act's terms
- Character
- adjudication
- Collection
- Standing duties: Georgia DUT-GA
Operative words
On March 14, 2020,... the governor of Georgia issued an executive order declaring a public health emergency stating that all 'healthcare facilities' shall comply with emergency orders... These are not the sort of events, such as inviting the public to a large indoor concert, that might demonstrate the total absence of even a slight amount of common sense that typifies gross negligence.
Penalty
Not applicable (appellate decision construing the immunity's condition)
What it required
The court read the Governor's March 14, 2020 order as requiring healthcare facilities to comply with emergency orders (slip op. at 13), read section 38-3-35(b) as protecting emergency-management activity 'reasonably attempting to comply with' emergency orders except for willful misconduct, gross negligence or bad faith (at 14), and held that a facility's March 11-17, 2020 conduct (announcing visitor restrictions, then imperfectly enforcing distancing and masking) was at most ordinary negligence, so the Business Safety Act barred the claims (at 18-19); the opinion treats the protocols of the orders as the conduct against which a Georgia business's care is measured. Character as recorded: adjudication (liability shield applied).
Retrieval noteThe court's slip opinion (20 pages, with the court's 'NOTICE: Motions for reconsideration' header and the gaappeals.us rules link), as posted by the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center (amicus in the case); CourtListener, Justia and FindLaw refused automated retrieval. The decedent died April 6, 2020; the facility announced visitation restrictions March 11, 2020 effective March 12; the complaint alleged failures to enforce distancing and masking through March 17, 2020. Pins: immunities (slip op. at 12); the March 14, 2020 order and 'shall comply' (at 13); section 38-3-35(b) and the April 14, 2020 order (at 14); the 'large indoor concert' passage (at 18); 'In sum' (at 19); judgment reversed (at 20). The reporter citation was not verified and the opinion is cited as a slip opinion.