Mealey's Coronavirus : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Coronavirus

March 25, 2024
1st Circuit: 2023 Mass. Law Bars 2020 Suit Over University’s Pandemic Closure

BOSTON — The retroactive application of a Massachusetts law signed into effect in August 2022 that bars actions for damages and equitable monetary relief against institutions of higher education for acts or omissions in response to the coronavirus pandemic does not violate the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution, a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s summary judgment ruling in a class complaint by students against Boston University (BU).
March 22, 2024
6th Circuit Largely Upholds Dismissal Of Vaccine Religious Exemption Claims

CINCINNATI — Putative class claims by 46 hospital workers whose requests for religious exemption from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate were largely properly dismissed by a trial court as 44 of the 46 workers failed to establish standing, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing only as to two workers who sufficiently alleged that they resigned after their requests were denied but before the hospital reversed its decision.
March 21, 2024
Panel Reverses ‘Rare’ Case Where Diner Has Alleged Direct Physical Loss, Damage

SAN DIEGO — A California appeals panel held that a diner insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its business losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic is “one of those rare cases” where the insured has adequately asserted a direct physical loss or damage under its commercial property insurance policy “at least raising the specter of coverage,” reversing a lower court’s judgment in favor of the insurer and remanding.
March 21, 2024
California Panel Affirms Ruling In Coverage Suit Over Postponed Metallica Shows

LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer in the insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage under a “Cancellation, Abandonment and Non-Appearance Insurance” policy for the postponement of the last six shows of Metallica’s South American tour in 2020, finding that the policy’s “communicable disease” exclusion is not ambiguous and that its ordinary meaning includes the pathogen that underlies the disease.
March 21, 2024
University Worker Asks U.S. High Court To Decide COVID-19 Vaccine Question

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Supreme Court justices should decide whether Jacobson v. Massachusetts requires that a governmental action like a vaccine mandate is “subject to heightened scrutiny” and whether such a mandate by Michigan State University (MSU) failed that test, an MSU worker argues in her petition for a writ of certiorari.
March 20, 2024
8th Circuit Refuses To Rehear Coverage Suit Over Tax Revenue Losses Due To Closures

ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a Missouri city’s request to reconsider its ruling that a commercial property insurer owes no coverage for the city’s tax revenue losses due to governmental closure orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic, refusing to address the city’s argument that the “inartful” policy is not clear and unambiguous.
March 19, 2024
8th Circuit Affirms Denial Of Arbitration In $9M PPE Dispute With Chinese Company

ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Missouri federal court’s ruling denying a motion to compel arbitration filed by a U.S. wholesale distributor of personal protective equipment (PPE) regarding a dispute with a Chinese manufacturer over more than $9 million worth of nitrile gloves the manufacturer delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 19, 2024
Judge: Student Challenging COVID Vaccination Need Fails To State Plausible Claims

HANNIBAL, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge on March 18 granted a motion of a health sciences university to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a former medical student alleging breach of contract and violations of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Missouri state law against religious discrimination after she withdrew from the university because of its requirement that she be vaccinated for COVID-19 to participate in a clinical rotation.
March 19, 2024
Untimely Cert Petition By COVID-19 Test Provider Denied By U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 18 denied a motion to direct the clerk to file a petition for a writ of certiorari out of time submitted by a COVID-19 test provider after a panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of a California federal court dismissing five complaints brought by the provider seeking reimbursement from an insurer for COVID testing services under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
March 19, 2024
Insurers Challenge Ruling That Tribal Court Has Jurisdiction Over Coronavirus Suit

SEATTLE — Insurers asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider its Feb. 29 opinion that affirmed a lower federal court’s finding that a tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over a coronavirus coverage suit involving tribal properties on tribal land that the Suquamish Tribe brought against “nonmember, off-reservation” insurers that participate in a program that is tailored to and offered exclusively to tribes, arguing that the panel’s “unprecedented expansion of tribal-court jurisdiction warrants rehearing.”
March 19, 2024
Disability And Race Bias, Whistleblower Petitions Denied By U.S. High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 18 denied several employment-related petitions, including one by an employee who alleged that his employer’s policy regarding coronavirus and the accommodations it provided him violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), one concerning alleged whistleblowing and one by a former employee alleging race discrimination.
March 19, 2024
Coronavirus Tracing App Creator Again Denied Writ Of Injunction By High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A month and a half after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied its application for a writ of injunction, a software company on March 18 saw its application to enjoin Apple Inc.’s purported “censorship of software” rejected a second time, this time by the entire court.
March 19, 2024
Parties In COVID-Related Hydroxychloroquine Sales Row At Impasse After Mediation

TRENTON, N.J. — In a lawsuit brought by a pharmaceutical supplier alleging that a pharmaceutical manufacturer breached a contract for the purchase of large quantities of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine phosphate for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, the manufacturer notified a New Jersey federal court that court-ordered mediation had concluded with the parties at an impasse.
March 18, 2024
6th Circuit Affirms Denial Of Intervention In Now Settled Vaccine Mandate Dispute

CINCINNATI — A trial court did not abuse its discretion when it denied a motion to intervene filed by one of more than 4,000 potential class members in a since settled case by employees over a health care provider’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled.
March 15, 2024
Unopposed Motion For Stay Pending Settlement Granted In PPP Loan Forgiveness Case

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on March 14 granted the unopposed motion of the federal government for a stay of briefing deadlines pending settlement via a docket entry and canceled a hearing on the motion in a lawsuit brought by a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan recipient that was denied eligibility for loan forgiveness because of the nature of its business.
March 14, 2024
$70,000 Settlement Approved In COVID-19 Wrongful Death Suit Against Nursing Home

MEDIA, Pa. — A Pennsylvania state court judge issued an order approving a $70,000 settlement in a wrongful death and survival action filed against a nursing home and its administrators and operators by the estate of a former resident who contracted COVID-19 and died, finding no objection to the estate’s petition to approve the settlement.
March 14, 2024
Pepperdine Seeks Summary Judgment Reconsideration In Pandemic Closure Class Case

LOS ANGELES — Pepperdine University filed a motion on March 13 for reconsideration of its summary judgment motion that was partially granted and partially denied just over a year ago in a class action by students seeking partial refunds for tuition fees and room and board after the school transitioned to online learning in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the school argues that Berlanga et al. v. University of San Francisco clarified the standard of review to be used in such a case.
March 13, 2024
Widener University Student Files Class Suit Seeking Prorated Pandemic Refunds

PHILADELPHIA — Widener University breached its contracts with students and was unjustly enriched when it failed to provide prorated refunds for tuition and fees after the school shuttered on-campus teaching, services and amenities and transitioned to remote teaching in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, a student alleges in her putative class complaint filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania.
March 13, 2024
Judge Strikes Expert Testimony, Denies Class Certification In Suit Against GEICO

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on March 12 granted insurers’ motion to strike the insureds’ expert testimony and denied the insureds’ motion for certification of two classes in their lawsuit alleging that the insurers violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act by charging “excessive” premiums during the COVID-19 pandemic that failed to account for a dramatic reduction in driving, finding that the insureds failed to establish predominance to warrant class certification.
March 13, 2024
Appeals Court: Calif. Restaurants’ Pandemic Alcohol License Fee Class Claims Fail

LOS ANGELES — Class claims by California restaurants against the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) for its failure to refund fees paid during the COVID-19 pandemic when the use of restaurants’ licenses was limited do not constitute petitions for a writ of mandate that an appellate court would have jurisdiction over and are not claims over which a trial court has jurisdiction, a California appellate panel ruled in an unpublished opinion, affirming dismissal by the trial court.
March 12, 2024
Insurers Tell N.C. High Court To Apply 27-Year-Old Precedent To Coronavirus Dispute

RALEIGH, N.C. — Insurers argued to the North Carolina Supreme Court that it should affirm an appeals court’s reversal of a lower court’s grant of partial summary judgment in favor of restaurant insureds in a COVID-19 coverage dispute, responding to the insured’s appellant argument that the phrase “physical loss or physical damage” includes loss of the physical use of property under the state’s “long-standing principles of insurance contract interpretation.”
March 11, 2024
Majority: Court Erred In Denying Insurer’s Motion To Dismiss COVID-19 Coverage Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — A majority of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 8 held that a lower federal court erred when it denied an insurer’s motion to dismiss an insured’s coverage lawsuit arising from the coronavirus pandemic, reversing both the lower court’s order denying the insurer’s motion to dismiss and its class certification order and remanding with instructions to dismiss the lawsuit.
March 08, 2024
9th Circuit Panel Says Challenge To California COVID Misinformation Law Is Moot

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated the decision of a California federal court denying a preliminary injunction sought by physicians to prevent the enforcement of a California medical professional COVID-19 misinformation statute that had since been repealed, remanding the case along with a similar case consolidated with the appeal, with instructions to dismiss both cases as moot.
March 08, 2024
2nd Circuit Dismisses Coronavirus Coverage Suit After Appeal Withdrawn

NEW YORK — Four days after a commercial property insurer and a commercial landlord insured stipulated that the insured’s appeal in a coronavirus coverage suit was withdrawn with prejudice, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.
March 06, 2024
Washington Judge Partly Grants Insurer’s Motion For Clarification In COVID-19 Suit

SEATTLE —Partly granting an insurer’s motion for partial clarification or reconsideration of a Jan. 4 order denying the insurer’s motion to dismiss the University of Washington’s lawsuit seeking coverage for losses allegedly incurred by its medical and athletic properties in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a Washington judge held that the university has pleaded facts to trigger its medical centers’ policies’ communicable disease decontamination cost endorsements; its coverage claims under the athletic properties’ policies are not dismissed and its claims for coverage are not limited to the medical center policies’ time element losses due to contamination by communicable disease endorsements.