Ex parte Triad of Alabama, LLC, d/b/a Flowers Hospital, [Ms. SC-2023-0395, Jan. 26, 2024] (Ala. 2024). In a plurality decision, the Court (Sellers, J.; Mendheim, J., concurs; Parker, C.J., and Shaw, Wise, Bryan, and Stewart, JJ., concur in the result; Mitchell, J., concurs in the result, with opinion; Cook, J., recuses) issues a writ of mandamus to the Houston Circuit Court vacating its order striking Flowers Hospital’s affirmative defense of immunity under the Alabama Covid Immunity Act (ACIA) enacted in February 2021.
On September 21, 2021, Plaintiff Voncille Askew (“Voncille”) had received COVID-19 treatment and as she was leaving the hospital tripped and fell on an allegedly defective concrete ramp. The ramp was part of an entrance/exit to the hospital that Voncille had been directed to use when entering and exiting the hospital. The hospital had designated this entrance/exit as the “Infusion entry” for the exclusive use of COVID-19 patients.
The plurality opinion concludes that the hospital was immune from negligence liability under the ACIA’s immunity provision codified at §6-5-792(a) and encompassing “Health Emergency Claims” defined by §6-5-791(a)(13) as “any cause of action that is related in any manner to … the covered entity’s efforts to prevent or delay the spread of Coronavirus….” The main opinion concludes Voncille’s negligence claim was a “Health Emergency Claim” from which Flowers Hospital was immune because Voncille was at the hospital for treatment of COVID-19, Ms. *13, and “[t]he statute imposes no limitations on the chain of causation or on the relation between a claim and Coronavirus outside of those limitations inherent to the words ‘arises from’ or ‘is related to.’” Ms. *15.
Justice Mitchell’s special concurrence disagreed with the rationale of “the main opinion [because] it does not indicate whether there is any real limit to what claims may be covered by immunity. As I see it – and as our cases suggest – the phrase ‘arises from or is related to’ incorporates substantive limitations; I believe we must acknowledge those limitations here.” Ms. *20. Justice Mitchell later emphasizes that “[t]hose limitations are especially important here. Almost every claim made since March 2020 can be traced back to Coronavirus given that the virus and the governmental response affected the entire world for the better part of three years.” Ms. *22.