A Pennsylvania nursing home told a federal court that an insurer should pay up to $3 million in coverage for lawsuits by six patients' estates alleging a staff member murdered them, arguing the insurer misconstrued a state medical negligence statute in order to limit coverage.

In a Wednesday complaint, Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center alleged Columbia Casualty Co. wrongly asserted that six suits against the skilled nursing facility are subject to a $500,000 limit under a policy endorsement providing reduced coverage in medical professional liability cases that trigger Pennsylvania-funded excess coverage. That coverage position rests on an improper interpretation of the Pennsylvania Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act, or MCARE, which established the state fund, the suit argued. Columbia is a unit of CNA Financial Corp.

"Plaintiff is entitled to a declaratory judgment that the underlying lawsuits do not constitute MCARE claims under Pennsylvania law and are therefore subject to the full professional liability policy limits of $1,000,000 per claim and $3,000,000 in the aggregate, not the reduced MCARE limits asserted by defendant," the complaint said.

The coverage dispute concerns ongoing suits in state court seeking to hold Sunnyview liable for six patient deaths linked to former staff member Heather Pressdee, who was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder.

Sunnyview sought coverage for the litigation under a professional liability policy issued by Columbia Casualty providing limits of $1 million per claim and $3 million in the aggregate, the nursing home recounted.

According to Sunnyview, Columbia Casualty took a coverage position that the suits were instead covered under a policy endorsement for MCARE claims providing limits of $500,000 per claim and $1.5 million in the aggregate. Under the policy, an MCARE claim refers to any claim against a participating healthcare provider "arising out of the rendering of or failure to render professional services," including healthcare services and administrative services, according to a copy of the policy attached to the complaint.

But MCARE is statutorily limited to liability resulting from the provision of healthcare services, not "professional services," Sunnyview argued. Claims in the underlying litigation do not qualify as MCARE claims because they concern alleged "non-medical administrative decisions and supervisory failures" as opposed to the furnishing of healthcare services, according to Sunnyview.

The nursing home also argued Columbia Casualty wrongly treated the six suits as a single "related claim" under the policy when it should have treated the suits as containing three distinct categories of claims.

Specifically, Sunnyview argued four of the lawsuits were premised on what those suits allege was the nursing home's negligent supervision of Pressdee, one of the lawsuits focused on its allegation that the home was negligent in hiring Pressdee and one of the lawsuits posed a "fundamentally different" legal theory of systemic neglect before Pressdee's hiring.

None of those claims "involve the type of exercise of medical skill associated with specialized training that is required for coverage under the MCARE Act," the complaint said. "Because the underlying lawsuits do not constitute MCARE claims under Pennsylvania law, they are not subject to the reduced policy limits of $500,000 per claim and $1,500,000 in the aggregate set forth in the MCARE endorsement."

The suit brings a breach of contract claim against Columbia Casualty and seeks declaratory judgments that the underlying suits constitute at least three separate claims and do not trigger the policy's MCARE policy endorsement.

Columbia Casualty and counsel for Sunnyview did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Sunnyview is represented by Beverly A. Block and George C. Thompson of Block & Associates LLC.

Counsel information for Columbia Casualty Co. was not immediately available Thursday.

The case is Sunnyview Operating LLC v. Columbia Casualty Co., case number 2:26-cv-00153, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.