A federal lawsuit filed by 13 residents of Polk and White Haven state centers could represent all residents of the centers, both current and future.
A motion to certify as a class action, filed by the plaintiffs’ attorney on Wednesday, said the class would consist of 284 current residents of the centers and any future residents, should the centers accept any.
The motion states the accusations of the plaintiffs against Gov. Tom Wolf, several state officials and departments, and both Polk and White Haven centers, are “typical of the claims of the class.”
If the motion is accepted, the original 13 members of the action would serve as “representative parties” and act as the primary faces of the lawsuit, but whatever outcome a judge decides would affect all residents of the centers.
The motion expresses a belief that if classification as a class action weren’t granted, the possibility of other lawsuits filed in the same vein as the original lawsuit could have detrimental effects.
The motion indicates that multiple lawsuits could lead courts to come to differing decisions based on the amount of evidence presented – something that could be borne from the amount of funding a lawsuit has, the ability of the appointed attorneys, or even opinions of a jury if a lawsuit should go to trial.
This case has been labeled as one of the last hopes to save the centers from closing in less than two years, and certification as a class action could be a saving grace in terms of time.
The lawsuit has already encountered several setbacks from outside forces, such as the closing of courts do to the coronavirus pandemic. And the filing of other lawsuits could push an already tight timeline back even further.
Attorneys on both sides are allowed to file motions for extension of time on set deadlines, which are granted should the judge find the reasons given for the motion acceptable – a tool that has been utilized numerous times by the state and the plaintiffs’ attorney in recent months.
Both sides have cited a backlog of workload due to the coronavirus as a reason for the extension.
If the lawsuit moves forward as outlined in a case management plan, submitted by both parties in August, a trial would not be eligible to begin until 575 days after the plan was submitted.
That plan set a suggested trial date for August 2021, two years into the state’s original three-year deadline to close the centers.
