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

Mealey's Coronavirus

November 13, 2024
Jury Awards Over $12M To Employee Fired For Refusing COVID Vaccine Due To Religion

DETROIT — A Michigan federal jury awarded the former employee of a medical insurer nearly $3 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages after finding the insurer liable for discrimination for failing to accommodate her religious objection to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
November 12, 2024
Transit Agency Says $7.8M Verdict Against It In COVID Vaccine Case Cannot Stand

SAN FRANCISCO — A transit agency moved for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, for a new trial after a California federal jury awarded six former employees in excess of $1 million each for a total of more than $7.8 million for failing to accommodate their religious objections to being vaccinated for COVID-19, contending that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and that opposing counsel was allowed to repeatedly make prejudicial comments.
November 11, 2024
Final OK Given To $5.5M Amazon COVID-19 Screenings Pay Class Settlement

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California granted final approval of a $5.5 million settlement between California workers and Amazon.com Services LLC, ending two cases in which the workers allege that they were denied pay for time spent undergoing COVID-19 symptom screenings before their shifts.
November 07, 2024
2nd Circuit Panel Affirms No Private Right Of Action For COVID Test Reimbursement

NEW YORK — A panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of a Connecticut federal court, which dismissed the claims of a medical practice seeking reimbursement from a university and its associated health plan for the costs of testing its members for COVID-19 during the pandemic, rejecting the practice’s several arguments as to why its claims are viable.
November 07, 2024
Appeal Filed By Disability Insurer In Long COVID Disability Benefits Dispute

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A disability insurer filed a notice of appeal in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal following a Virginia federal judge’s determination that a disability claimant is owed past-due long-term disability (LTD) benefits because the claimant met her burden of showing that she is disabled from working as an engineer as a result of symptoms caused by long COVID.
November 05, 2024
Late Medical Malpractice Case May Be Viable Due To Georgia COVID-19 Emergency Order

ATLANTA — A Georgia Court of Appeals panel rejected a medical malpractice litigant’s arguments that the five-year statute of repose did not apply to his renewal action or did not apply because his lawsuit was previously dismissed involuntarily, but vacated the judgment of a trial court dismissing the action and remanded it for consideration of whether the statute of repose had been tolled by a COVID-era judicial order as laid out by a recent Georgia Supreme Court opinion.
November 04, 2024
Challenge To Michigan Law On Which COVID Crowd Restriction Was Based Is Deemed Moot

LANSING, Mich. — A divided Michigan Supreme Court on Nov. 1 reversed a split lower appellate panel ruling that a challenge to a state statute on which a COVID-era executive order imposing restrictions on gathering size was based was not moot and remanded the case to the appellate court for entry of an order granting summary disposition in favor of the director of the state department of health and human services.
November 04, 2024
University Manager Seeks En Banc Review Of 6th Circuit’s Vaccine Ruling

CINCINNATI — A former University of Kentucky department manager filed a motion seeking en banc review after a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a summary judgment ruling for the university’s board of trustees in a dispute over a COVID-19 test-or-vaccinate policy.
October 30, 2024
State Law Allowing Mail-In Ballots To Be Received After Election Day Invalidated

NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has struck down a COVID-era Mississippi state law providing that mail-in ballots postmarked by election day may be received by the registrar within five days of Election Day and still be valid, ruling that the provision is preempted by federal law, which the panel interpreted as requiring that ballots be received by election officials no later than Election Day.
October 30, 2024
Interlocutory Appeal Filed After Dismissal Ruling In NYC Workers’ Vaccine Case

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — New York City workers who filed a putative class lawsuit after they were placed on leave for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine or claim that they were “coerced” into getting the vaccine filed a notice of interlocutory appeal after a federal judge in New York largely dismissed their claims.
October 29, 2024
College’s $575,000 Settlement With Students Over Pandemic Refunds Granted Final OK

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Oct. 28 granted final approval of a $575,000 settlement to be paid by Lebanon Valley College (LVC) to end a class complaint by students seeking refunds for tuition and fees after classes switched from in-person to remote in response to the coronavirus pandemic; separately, the judge awarded attorney fees, expenses and a $2,500 class contribution award the same day.
October 29, 2024
Federal Judge Stays Dismissal Of Philadelphia Eagles’ COVID-19 Coverage Dispute

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania stayed his dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the owner and operator of the Philadelphia Eagles football organization seeking a declaration as to coverage for its losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic pending a ruling on the insured’s motion for reconsideration.
October 29, 2024
Dismissal Of Challenge To Federal COVID Vaccination Mandate Appealed To 3rd Circuit

CAMDEN, N.J. — Two individuals claiming that President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s executive orders requiring COVID-19 vaccines for federal employees and contractors violated their constitutional rights filed a notice of appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a New Jersey federal court, seeking review of the court’s ruling that the lawsuit was moot and that exceptions to mootness that might preserve its viability did not apply.
October 29, 2024
Religious Bias Claims By 30 Dismissed In Mass Action Over Airline’s Vaccine Mandate

HONOLULU, Hawaii — A federal judge in Hawaii granted an airline’s motion to partially dismiss discrimination claims made by workers in a mass action filed after a vaccine policy was implemented in August 2021 in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
October 24, 2024
11th Circuit Vacates Class Certification In University Pandemic Closure Suit

ATLANTA — A trial court’s predominance analysis when granting class certification in a lawsuit by the parent of an Emory University student was an abuse of discretion, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in a per curiam opinion, vacating and remanding the case in which the parent seeks money back after classes and services were impacted due to the COVID-19.
October 24, 2024
Driver’s Claims For Larger COVID-19 Refunds Properly Dismissed, 9th Circuit Told

SAN FRANCISCO — GEICO in an Oct. 23 appellee brief tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a federal judge properly granted summary judgment on an insured driver’s class action claim against it for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by providing drivers an insufficient rebate on premiums after COVID-19, arguing that its rebate was fair under the relevant policy and state insurance regulations.
October 22, 2024
Contamination Exclusion Bars Coverage For COVID-19 Losses, Federal Judge Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An all-risk policy’s contamination exclusion bars coverage for losses sustained during the COVID-19 pandemic because a California appellate panel’s determination that a contamination exclusion bars coverage for COVID-19 losses is binding and warrants the same finding in a similar suit filed by insureds in federal court, a California federal judge said Oct. 21 in granting an insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
October 22, 2024
Split Illinois High Court Affirms Judgment In Row Over Care Homes’ COVID Immunity

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A split Illinois Supreme Court affirmed an appellate court’s decision answering in the affirmative a question certified to it from a lower court after modifying it to ask whether a specific executive order issued by the Illinois governor grants “immunity for ordinary negligence claims to healthcare facilities that rendered assistance to the State during the COVID-19 pandemic,” finding that “the appellate court appropriately reframed the certified question to clarify that immunity applies only to ordinary negligence claims.”
October 22, 2024
3rd Circuit Dismisses Urban Outfitters’ Appeal In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

PHILADELPHIA — One day after URBN US Retail LLC (Urban Outfitters) and its insurer filed a joint stipulation to dismiss, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals tossed Urban Outfitters’ appeal of a lower federal court’s dismissal of its coverage lawsuit arising from the coronavirus pandemic.
October 18, 2024
Temple University’s $6.9M Pandemic Closure Settlement Given Preliminary OK

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania preliminarily approved a $6.9 million settlement to be paid by a Philadelphia university to end a consolidated class complaint by students accusing the school of unjust enrichment and breaching its implied contractual duty to provide in-person education and access to campus services when it shut its doors in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
October 18, 2024
Nevada High Court: No PREP Act Immunity For Failure To Set COVID Safety Protocol

CARSON CITY, Nev. — A panel of the Nevada Supreme Court has denied a petition filed by a skilled nursing facility for a writ of mandamus directing a state court judge to dismiss the complaint of the survivor of a rehabilitation patient who died of COVID-19 contracted while in the facility, holding that neither the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act nor a state COVID-19 emergency directive granted immunity for the facility’s failure to establish an effective COVID-19 safety protocol.
October 18, 2024
At Least 7 Recent ERISA Putative Class Actions Target Tobacco Surcharges

In the past month, at least seven putative class actions targeting surcharges that tobacco or nicotine users allegedly must pay to maintain health insurance have been filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
October 17, 2024
Federal Judge Dismisses Philadelphia Eagles’ COVID-19 Suit Against Insurer

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Oct. 16 dismissed a lawsuit brought by the owner and operator of the Philadelphia Eagles football organization seeking a declaration as to coverage for its alleged losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, noting that the court is bound by Ungarean v. CAN & Valley Forge Ins. Co. that was recently decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
October 16, 2024
Ex-Employee Whose COVID- Related Suit Was Tossed For Not Filing With EEOC Appeals

MINNEAPOLIS — A former hospital employee who accepted a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccination but was then terminated for refusing to wear an N95 mask as required by hospital policy filed a notice of appeal on Oct. 15 to the Eight Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a Minnesota federal judge’s order dismissing the employee’s religious discrimination lawsuit for failure to exhaust her administrative remedies.
October 15, 2024
5th Circuit: PPP Applicant Timely Notified By Lender As To Depletion Of Funds

NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment of a Louisiana federal court dismissing the amended complaint of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applicant alleging that its lender bank violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in failing to update the applicant as to the status of its loan within the legally required notice period, during which PPP loan funds had been exhausted, thereby denying the applicant of PPP benefits.