Nancy Tyson v. Park Meadows Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, LLC, et al.

Florida Statutes section 400.023(1) declares that certain claims against nursing homes “may be brought only” pursuant to its exclusive-remedy scheme, and companion provisions impose pre-suit notice, claimsevaluation, and limitations requirements, Fla. Stat. §§ 400.0233, 400.0236, that have no counterpart in Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq. Applying that state scheme, the courts below dismissed, with prejudice, a nursing home resident’s Title III disability-discrimination claim in its entirety, without reaching its merits. Section 400.023(1), by its own terms, governs only a cause of action “which seeks damages” for a resident’s injury or death; Petitioner’s Title III claims sought only injunctive and declaratory relief and fees, as Title III itself requires. The questions presented are:

1. Whether a State may apply a nursing-home liability statute’s exclusive-remedy provision — which by its own terms reaches only claims “which seek[] damages” — to bar a Title III claim that seeks no damages.

2. Whether, in any event, the Supremacy Clause permits a State to apply such a statute’s exclusive-remedy and pre-suit notice provisions to bar, in their entirety, a private cause of action created by Congress under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.