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

Mealey's Coronavirus

June 03, 2024
R.I. Supreme Court Affirms Contamination Exclusion Bars Coverage In Coronavirus Suit

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island Supreme Court on May 31 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of a commercial property insurer in an insured’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, finding that it has “no difficulty concluding” that the insured’s “allegations fall squarely within the Contamination Exclusion.”
May 31, 2024
Communicable Disease Business Income Coverage Limit Is $100,000 Per Occurrence

NEWARK, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey ruled that a commercial insurance policy’s applicable limit for its Communicable Disease Business Income Coverage is $100,000 per occurrence and the threat of the spread of the coronavirus and not Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive orders triggered this coverage, granting an insurer’s motion for summary judgment and denying an insured’s cross-motion in a declaratory judgment lawsuit arising from the pandemic.
May 31, 2024
6th Circuit: Hospital Had Valid Basis To Fire Worker Who Sought ADA Accommodation

CINCINNATI — A panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling of an Ohio federal court granting the motion for summary judgment of a hospital sued by its in-house pharmacist for denying him a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) after the hospital fired him for leaving his post before the end of his shift to avoid a co-worker exposed to COVID-19 and for terminating him in retaliation for his requesting an accommodation for his hereditary spastic paraplegia.
May 30, 2024
Amici Support Pandemic Unemployment Applicants’ Exhaustion High Court Arguments

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chamber of Commerce of the United States and a number of other groups filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting arguments by Alabama unemployment benefits applicants who argue that their lawsuit over the delays in processing the large amount of applications filed due to the coronavirus pandemic was improperly dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
May 30, 2024
1st Circuit Denies Rehearing After Finding Mass. Law Bars Pandemic Closure Suit

BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by students who brought a class complaint against the trustees of Boston University (BU) for allegedly breaching the promise of in-person instruction and services when the school transitioned to online learning in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic; the petition was filed after the First Circuit ruled that the retroactive application of a Massachusetts law signed into effect in August 2022 that bars such lawsuits does not violate the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.
May 29, 2024
Washington Panel Affirms Dismissal Of Quest Diagnostics’ Coronavirus Coverage Suit

SEATTLE — A Washington appeals panel held May 28 that Quest Diagnostics Inc. failed to establish that the presence of COVID-19 resulted in physical loss or damage to its insured property, affirming a lower court’s dismissal of the insured’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking coverage under the civil authority policy provision for its business interruption losses.
May 29, 2024
PPP Borrower Says SBA’s Motion To Dismiss Misconstrues Nature Of Relief Sought

MIAMI — A Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan recipient responded to a motion to dismiss its complaint against the administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) seeking to force the SBA to determine its eligibility for the loan on May 28, stating that the motion misconstrues the nature of the relief sought, which is the determination of its eligibility for the loan and not whether it is eligible for loan forgiveness.
May 29, 2024
8th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Mayo Clinic Workers’ COVID-19 Vaccine Claims

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three workers who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and were denied religious exemptions and two who were granted exemptions but refused their employer’s alternate testing requirements may all proceed with their religious accommodation claims against their employers as the trial court erred when it granted dismissal to The Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic Health System-Southeast Minnesota Region and Mayo Clinic, Ambulance (together, Mayo Clinic), an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding in part that the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) provides a cause of action for failure to accommodate religious beliefs.
May 28, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms No Coverage Ruling In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in Mars Inc.’s declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, finding no reversible error in the lower court’s ruling.
May 28, 2024
10th Circuit: No Jurisdiction Over New Mexico COVID-19 Vaccine Order Class Case

DENVER — A putative class complaint by a nurse and an individual looking to have her children show animals at a state fair that challenged a New Mexico public health order (PHO) requiring certain individuals to be vaccinated against coronavirus should have been dismissed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) as there is no jurisdiction over their claims, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding that one of the individual’s claims was moot and the other lacked standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
May 28, 2024
Illinois High Court Hears Arguments In Row Over Care Facilities’ COVID Immunity

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in estates’ appeal of an appellate court 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.”
May 24, 2024
California High Court: Presence Of COVID-19 Does Not Constitute Direct Physical Loss

SAN FRANCISCO — Answering “no” to a certified question from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court held May 23 that the “actual or potential presence of the COVID-19 virus on an insured's premises generally does not constitute ‘direct physical loss or damage to property’ for purposes of coverage under a commercial property insurance policy.”
May 24, 2024
N.C. High Court Agrees To Review Clothing Retailer’s Coronavirus Coverage Suit

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Supreme Court on May 23 granted a clothing retailer insured’s request to review an appeals court’s ruling that affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of its lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
May 23, 2024
Judge: Consolidation Needed To Address Settlement In Related Mortgage Class Suits

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In an order filed in the wake of a status hearing on a joint motion for preliminary approval of a $185 million settlement to resolve two related suits accusing Wells Fargo Bank N.A. and Wells Fargo and Co. (together, Wells Fargo) of violating state and federal law by engaging in a scheme to place borrowers into a forbearance program during the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal judge in Ohio on May 22 notified the parties that unless they filed a brief in opposition within seven days, the court “will sua sponte consolidate these cases into a single case for settlement purposes only, appoint both counsel as interim class counsel for settlement purposes only, and consider the pending motion for preliminary approval.”
May 23, 2024
$5.5M Amazon COVID-19 Screenings Pay Settlement Granted Preliminary Approval

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California on May 22 granted preliminary approval of a $5.5 million settlement after supplemental briefing and a revised class notice was filed in two consolidated cases by California workers who accuse Amazon.com Services LLC of failing to pay them for time spent undergoing COVID-19 symptom screenings before their shifts.
May 20, 2024
5th Circuit Refuses To Rehear Dispute Over $1M Settlement Of Canceled Music Festival

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an insurer’s petition to reconsider its reversal of a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in its favor in the insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying $1 million class action settlement arising from the insured’s refusal to refund ticket sales for the South by Southwest festival that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, refusing to disturb its finding that the policy’s contract and professional services exclusions do not bar coverage.
May 20, 2024
Massachusetts Panel Affirms Dismissal Of Restaurants’ Coronavirus Coverage Suit

BOSTON — A Massachusetts appellate panel on May 20 affirmed a lower court’s grant of an insurer’s motion to dismiss a coverage lawsuit arising from the coronavirus pandemic, concluding that the restaurant insureds failed to demonstrate that the coronavirus physically altered or affected their insured property in any way.
May 20, 2024
Judge Denies TRO Barring Foreclosure Sale By Servicer Accused Of Violating UCL

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on May 17 denied a borrower’s application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the imminent foreclosure sale of his home, finding it unlikely that he will succeed on his claims against a borrower for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by allegedly misinforming him about his ability to obtain a COVID-19 forbearance plan.
May 16, 2024
Panel Amends Opinion After Insureds Seek Clarification In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 15 filed an amended memorandum indicating that its reversal of a lower federal court’s denial of leave to amend a claim under an insurance policy’s Crisis Event provision applied to two sets of insureds in a coronavirus coverage dispute.
May 15, 2024
SBA Says PPP Borrower Cannot Get Relief Sought Without Seeking Loan Forgiveness

MIAMI — The administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) on May 14 moved a Florida federal court to dismiss the lawsuit of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan recipient seeking to force the SBA to determine its eligibility for the loan, arguing that there was no relief to be obtained by the loan recipient in the absence of a loan forgiveness application, which the recipient has not submitted.
May 15, 2024
Insurers Say ERISA, CARES Act Preclude Suits Seeking Reimbursement For COVID Tests

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A group of health insurers from several related cases filed a consolidated motion to dismiss the second amended complaints of a testing lab in the lab’s multiple lawsuits seeking reimbursement for COVID-19 testing it claims the insurers should have paid for on behalf of its insureds during the pandemic.
May 14, 2024
PREP Act Immunity In Swab Patent Row Not Ripe For Appeal, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Denial by a federal judge in Maine of a swab maker’s motion to dismiss patent infringement allegations on grounds that it is immune from suit as part of the federal coronavirus response will not be reviewed, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said May 14.
May 13, 2024
High Court Declines To Review 9th Circuit COVID-Related Qualified Immunity Rulings

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 13 declined to review three panel opinions from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirming federal court decisions denying state prison officials qualified immunity for their conduct in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic after 26 inmates and a prison employee died from COVID-19 and also denied a conditional certiorari petition filed by representatives of some of the inmates and the employee.
May 13, 2024
Supreme Court Rejects Petition Over Apple’s ‘Censorship Of Software’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After twice denying an application for a writ of injunction by the creator of a coronavirus tracking app, which Apple Inc. declined to carry in its App Store, the U.S. Supreme Court on May 13 denied the creator’s petition for certiorari in which it raised seven questions related to Apple Inc.’s purported anticompetitive behavior.
May 10, 2024
3rd Circuit Denies Ralph Lauren’s Motions To Remand Coronavirus Coverage Suit

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 9 denied Ralph Lauren Corp.’s motions seeking to vacate and remand a New Jersey federal court’s ruling in favor of its insurer in a coronavirus coverage dispute.