Adelaide couple loses court challenge to SA’s COVID-19 quarantine laws, but free to go anyway
A lawyer and her husband have lost their bid to be freed from hotel COVID-19 quarantine so he can recover from spine surgery at home – but were released at midnight anyway after spending two weeks in lockdown.
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A lawyer and her husband have lost their bid to be freed from hotel COVID-19 quarantine – but have now been released from quarantine.
On Monday afternoon, the Supreme Court refused Caroline Tassone and Phillip Frech’s application for urgent relief from the state’s Emergency Management Act, despite both having tested negative for the virus.
Justice Mark Livesey conceded the couple were “aggrieved” by the way SA Health had treated them, and said it appeared there had been “problems in the quarantine process”.
However, he ruled there was no utility in granting their request because their quarantine period ended at 12.01am on Tuesday, meaning they could go home.
“The court has not been provided with any updated medical advice to suggest a delay of some hours is going to be harmful to Mr Frech,” he said.
“There is no evidence at all to show he’s at any serious risk over the next eight hours.”
In August, the couple travelled to Germany under essential traveller exemptions so that Mr Frech could undergo three specialist spinal surgeries.
Last week, they told the Adelaide Magistrates Court that, while still in Germany, they applied for permission to undertake their mandatory quarantine period in their home.
They and Mr Frech’s doctors claim his recovery and wellbeing is at risk the longer he is not in the couple’s purpose-built, disability-assisted home.
The court heard SA Health denied that request and isolated the couple in the Pullman Hotel, only for Mr Frech to be rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with complications.
He is now in isolation there – unable to be physically assisted due to quarantine – while Ms Tassone remains in the Pullman.
The couple asked the court to declare their isolation invalid and allow them to go home, but SA Health said the court had no jurisdiction to do so.
It further asserted the couple had refused multiple requests to undergo COVID-19 testing.
The court agreed it had no jurisdiction, telling Ms Tassone that only the Supreme Court could hear the matter.
On Monday, Adam Richards, for the couple, said both Mr Frech and Ms Tassone had been tested for COVID-19 and returned negative results.
He agreed his clients’ quarantine was almost over but urged the court to spare them any more time away from their home.
Mr Frech, he said, had been not only separated from his wife and carer, but also from his medication and personal rehab equipment – which was still in the Pullman.
“This state of affairs should not be allowed to continue for even another few hours,” he said.
“Mr Frech is a patient who ought to have been properly cared for right from the start, whose family was capable of caring for him without cost or risk to the public.
“It’s outrageous that was not done … if he was a member of the Australian cricket team, he would have been allowed to quarantine at home.”
Counsel for SA Health opposed any early end to quarantine, saying Mr Frech would be provided with his equipment “as soon as reasonably possible”.
Justice Livesey dismissed the couple’s application.
“In my opinion, there’s no utility in making an order because this matter will come to a natural end at midnight.”
