HARTFORD — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and state health officials over quarantines imposed on several people returning from West Africa during the 2014 Ebola epidemic.
U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello said the state’s public health commissioner at the time, Dr. Jewel Mullen, has immunity from the lawsuit and the plaintiffs lacked standing to make allegations. The ruling was released Thursday.
The lawsuit was brought by the Liberian Community Association of Connecticut and 10 people, including a West African family of six, who said they had no Ebola symptoms when they returned to Connecticut in 2014, but were illegally quarantined for weeks. They sought unspecified money damages and an order preventing such quarantines in the future.
The Malloy administration said the quarantines were needed to protect the public.
