Amazon Says NY's COVID Suit Belongs In Federal Court

Amazon has urged a New York federal judge to keep the state's lawsuit accusing the company of lax health and safety standards during the COVID-19 pandemic in federal court, saying that at its core, the complaint alleges violations of federal workplace safety standards.

In a memorandum of law filed Wednesday, Amazon and other affiliated entities urged U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff to reject New York Attorney General Letitia James' request to send her suit against the e-commerce giant back to the state court in which it was first filed.

Amazon said that despite James' attempts to dress the case up as asserting violations of New York Labor Law on behalf of the "people of the state of New York," the suit must be heard in federal court because it fundamentally concerns federal health and safety standards regarding specific Amazon workers who reside in different states than the company.

"There is simply no way for the court to resolve the OAG's claims without construing significant aspects of federal law concerning COVID-19 workplace protections," Amazon said.

James filed the lawsuit in February, accusing Amazon of "repeatedly and persistently" failing to put in place adequate measures to control the spread of the virus in its fulfillment center on Staten Island and its distribution center in Queens. Amazon, which has said it has taken serious mitigation efforts at its facilities, quickly removed the case to federal court.

The suit specifically accused Amazon of not properly cleaning its facilities after someone who had the virus was present, not undertaking proper contact tracing and notification of workers and failing to give workers time to attend to their own cleaning and hygiene needs.

In a filing earlier this month, James argued the suit should return to state court because the claims arise "wholly under state law" and are based on her authority to take on allegedly illegal business practices that affect New York workers.

But Amazon said James was taking too shallow a view of the litigation. While the suit accuses Amazon of violating New York Labor Law, it does so by asserting the company did not follow guidelines and standards issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

As a result, litigating the dispute would necessarily raise issues of federal law that can only be decided by a federal court, Amazon argued.

In addition, Amazon said the U.S. Supreme Court and the Second Circuit have long said that when states sue on behalf of their citizens, courts must look to the parties with a "real and substantial" interest in the suit when evaluating jurisdiction. While the suit claims to seek relief for all citizens of New York, the people with such a definite interest in the suit are the workers at the Staten Island and Queens facilities, the company said.

In particular, Amazon argued four of the five claims in the complaint seek "unusually personalized relief" for Derrick Palmer and Christian Smalls, two workers James alleged faced retaliation from Amazon due to complaints they raised about conditions in the facilities.

Because Amazon calls a different state home than the workers at the facilities and Palmer and Smalls, the suit belongs in federal court, the company argued.

Also informative of the proper venue for the case is the fact that multiple other suits concerning Amazon's workplace safety practices have been filed in federal court. That includes suits Palmer and Smalls filed over workplace conditions and Amazon's Feb. 12 complaint seeking an injunction to prevent James from using state law to force the company to alter its workplace safety practices, according to the memorandum.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the filing.

The New York Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Counsel for Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing.

New York State is represented by Julie Ulmet, Seth Kupferberg, Jeremy Pfetsch and Roya Aghanori with the state Attorney General's Office.

Amazon is represented by Jason Schwartz, Lucas Townsend, Mylan Denerstein and Zainab Ahmad of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

The case is People of the State of New York v. Amazon.com Inc. et al., case number 1:21-cv-01417, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

--Editing by Leah Bennett.

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