Hospital patients, nurses and their families alleged Ontario declared the health emergency over prematurely to counter the effect of a World Health Organization travel advisory.

An Ontario Superior Court judge had given permission for class actions to go ahead and the province appealed.

In overturning the earlier decision, the Court of Appeal said Ontario is obliged to protect the public from the spread of communicable diseases, but can't be held financially responsible to people who catch those diseases.

However, the court ruled the province was not negligent during the SARS outbreak and did not have a direct relationship with the plaintiffs.

SARS killed 44 people, all in the Toronto area.