Appeals Court Upholds Class Certification of Nursing Home Residents Seeking Community-Based Alternatives

A U.S. Court of Appeals upholds a district court ruling that granted class certification to a group of disabled nursing home residents who complained of a lack of Medicaid-funded community-based alternatives.  In re District of Columbia, (D.C. Cir., No. 14-8001, June 26, 2015).

The plaintiffs, a group of disabled nursing home residents receiving Medicaid-funded long term care, sued the District of Columbia for allegedly violating its obligation, pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, to provide services to the disabled in the most appropriate, integrated setting. The plaintiffs filed a motion seeking class certification, asserting that they were all similarly situated nursing home residents who wanted to live in the community but were forced to remain institutionalized against their will.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the motion for class certification, finding that alleged systemic deficiencies, such as the District's failure to offer sufficient discharge planning or to provide residents with meaningful choices of community-based alternatives to nursing home care, were sufficient bases upon which to certify the class. 

The District filed a petition for permission to file an interlocutory appeal of the district court's ruling certifying the class.  The District argued that the lower court committed manifest error by failing to identify policies or practices that were common to all members of the class and that were amenable to class-wide resolution.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagrees and upholds the class certification.  The court concludes that it was not manifest error for the lower court to find the allegations of systemic deficiencies in the program sufficient to establish a class of plaintiffs.

For the full text of this decision, click here.

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