Covid victims' family members' class action goes to administrative judge

The claims for compensation of more than 500 relatives of the Covid 19 victims pending, since 2021, before the Court of Rome have passed into the jurisdiction of theadministrative judge, the only one with exclusive jurisdiction over disputes concerning the dysfunctions of thenational health service. Therefore, the Civil Court of Rome has dismissed the class action brought by the relatives of the Covid victims, who are claiming non-pecuniary damages of approximately 100 million euros, against the Presidency of the Council, the Ministry of Health and the Lombardy Region. The Court of Cassation thus accepted the argument of the Prime Minister's Office and rejected that of the relatives of the victims of Covid 19, according to whom the interlocutor was the ordinary judge.

For the Supreme Court, in fact, the claim for compensation is based on "the inefficiency of the performance of active administrative tasks within the organisation of the national health service before and during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis". This triggers the exclusive jurisdiction of the administrative judge. Nor does the fact that fundamental rights are involved in the decision, first and foremost, the right to health.

The class action documents are contained in a binder of over 2000 pages, relating to the management of the pandemic. In the plaintiffs' sights is the absolutenon-existence of the plan that should have been drawn up on the basis of a 2013 European Parliament decision respecting the Guidelines of the WHO and ECDC. Added to this are the 'scarcity of swabs', the 'lack of beds', the 'delays in the transport and admission of patients', the 'insufficiency of artificial ventilation machines' and the diversity of protocols for swabs, the 'different treatment modalities'.