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

Mealey's Coronavirus

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.
March 06, 2024
English Justice Denies Summary Judgment As To Coverage Issue In COVID-19 Suit

LONDON — A justice of the High Court of England and Wales denied summary judgment to two restaurant chains on the issue of coverage for their business interruption losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic but granted summary judgment and permission to appeal the policy construction issue.
March 05, 2024
9th Circuit: Pilot’s Appeal In Challenge To Airport Masking Rule Is Untimely

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal of an airline pilot seeking review of a Washington federal court decision dismissing his complaint alleging that he was racially profiled and unlawfully detained by airport police officers in their attempt to enforce the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) COVID-19 masking policy as the pilot passed through security on the way to his flight, concluding that the notice of appeal had not been filed within 30 days of the trial court’s judgment.
March 05, 2024
Class, Hospitals Ask 6th Circuit To Uphold Vaccine Mandate Settlement

CINCINNATI — A class of hospital employees and their employer who reached a $130,000 nationwide settlement in a case over the employer’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy filed separate appellee briefs in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking to uphold the settlement approval being challenged on appeal by objectors.
March 04, 2024
PPP Loan Forgiveness Case Dismissed After Attorney Fails To Withdraw

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge on March 1 dismissed without prejudice a case in which a mental health treatment facility sought de novo review of a decision of the Small Business Administration (SBA) denying forgiveness for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan after the facility’s attorney failed to withdraw from the case as ordered due to his suspension from practice by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
March 04, 2024
Ferry Workers Ask 1st Circuit To Reverse Injunction Denial In Vaccine Case

BOSTON — A trial court erred its standard of review selection and abused its discretion when it denied for a second time a request for preliminary injunction by employees of a Massachusetts ferry operations authority who sued after their requests for religious exemptions from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate were denied, the workers argue in their appellant brief filed in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
March 01, 2024
Tribal Court Has Jurisdiction Over Tribe’s Coronavirus Coverage Suit, 9th Circuit Affirms

SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 29 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.
March 01, 2024
Termination Over COVID-19 Policy Was Not Tied To Man’s Native American Heritage

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey county and local union are entitled to summary judgment on claims brought against them by a man who says he was terminated from his employment with the county because of his Native American “cultural” opposition to a COVID-19 vaccination policy because the man failed to show that the termination was related to his race or national identity, a New Jersey federal judge found Feb. 29 in granting the county’s and union’s summary judgment motions.