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Mealey's Coronavirus

  • January 21, 2025

    Former Employee With Long COVID Alleges Her Firing By UPS Violated ADA, FMLA

    PORTLAND, Maine — A former employee of a package delivery company filed suit against her former employer, alleging that her termination after developing “long COVID” was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state and federal family and medical leave statutes.

  • January 21, 2025

    SBA Within Statutory Authority To Set Corporate Limits On PPP Loan Disbursements

    CHICAGO — Ruling that the Small Business Administration (SBA) was statutorily authorized to create eligibility limits for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, an Illinois federal judge granted the SBA’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit by a rehabilitation center seeking PPP loan forgiveness and denied the center’s motion for summary judgment and its motion for an interlocutory order compelling reimbursement of loan funds that were recouped by the government.

  • January 17, 2025

    Michigan Jury Awards $133,000 To Employee Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination

    DETROIT — A Michigan federal jury on Jan. 16 awarded $133,000 to a former employee of a resort after determining that his refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine was based on a sincerely held religious belief and that the resort failed to prove that accommodating the employee’s religious beliefs would have caused it to suffer an undue hardship.

  • January 16, 2025

    Supreme Court Declines To Enjoin State Physician COVID-19 Misinformation Policy

    WASHINGTON, D.C. —  The U.S. Supreme Court has denied an application for injunction pending appeal submitted by Washington state doctors and others to prevent the enforcement of state policy prohibiting the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccine information.

  • January 16, 2025

    2nd Circuit: No Gender Bias By Trader Joe’s For Pandemic Trip Firing

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel, in affirming a Connecticut federal judge’s order granting summary judgment, has determined that “no reasonable factfinder could conclude on” the record presented that Trader Joe’s termination of a female employee after she took a vacation out of the country during the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic following a written warning and negative performance review “was a pretext for sex discrimination or that sex discrimination was an otherwise motivating factor” in the decision.

  • January 15, 2025

    Hydroxychloroquine Supplier Denies Its Amended Complaint Prejudices Manufacturer

    TRENTON, N.J. — A pharmaceutical supplier on Jan. 14 informed a New Jersey federal court that the striking of its second amended complaint (SAC), filed in connection with its purchase of large quantities of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine phosphate from a manufacturer, is not warranted, maintaining that the SAC neither adds nor removes counts from the proposed version and simply adds facts in support of the counts it was permitted to amend.

  • January 15, 2025

    4th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Fired Worker’s Religious Bias Vaccine Suit

    RICHMOND, Va. — A nurse who alleged religious discrimination and failure to provide reasonable accommodation after her employer denied her request for a religious exemption to its COVID-19 vaccination policy sufficiently alleged that her vaccination beliefs were rooted in her religious beliefs, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing a trial court’s dismissal of the complaint.

  • January 14, 2025

    High Court Declines To Review Denial Of Qualified Immunity In Prison COVID-19 Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 denied the petition for writ of certiorari of prison officials seeking review of a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision reversing a Michigan federal court’s dismissal of a prisoner’s civil rights complaint against the officials stemming from their management of the prison in response to COVID-19.

  • January 13, 2025

    Texas Appeals Dismissal Of Case Alleging Pfizer Misled COVID-19 Vaccine Efficacy

    LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas filed a notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after a Texas federal judge granted a motion to dismiss the state’s lawsuit alleging that Pfizer Inc. made false and misleading claims about the COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).

  • January 10, 2025

    10th Circuit Accepts Employee’s Late Rehearing Bid In COVID Vaccine Refusal Case

    DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a request to accept an untimely petition for rehearing en banc submitted by a former nursing center employee seeking review of a panel judgment affirming the dismissal of her First Amendment free exercise claim stemming from her termination for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule.

  • January 10, 2025

    Statute Of Limitations Bars New Jersey University COVID-19 Quarantine Death Lawsuit

    NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge dismissed without prejudice a lawsuit brought by the estate and parents of a college sophomore who died while in COVID-19 isolation during the school year after contracting the disease, ruling that the statute of limitations had run on wrongful death and negligence claims and that contract and fraud claims were deficient.

  • January 10, 2025

    Disability Insurer Wrongfully Terminated Benefits, Woman With Long COVID Says

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A woman who was diagnosed with long COVID filed suit on Jan. 9 in California federal court against her disability insurer, alleging that the insurer wrongfully terminated her long-term disability (LTD) benefits after determining that she was able to perform the duties of her own occupation as the director of operations at a museum.

  • January 10, 2025

    Hospital, Insurer Announce Settlement Of Coronavirus Coverage Suit In Federal Court

    BOSTON — A hospital insured and its commercial property insurer tell a Massachusetts federal court in a Jan. 9 joint motion that they have reached a settlement in principle of the insured’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

  • January 09, 2025

    N.Y. Appeals Court Affirms Arbitration Award In Coronavirus Coverage Dispute

    NEW YORK — A New York appeals court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that denied an insurer’s request to disqualify a former New York Supreme Court justice as an umpire in an arbitration of a COVID-19 coverage dispute and concluded that the lower court properly determined the insured failed to demonstrate that the arbitration award should be vacated.

  • January 09, 2025

    N.Y. Appeals Court Reinstates Complaint Against 1 Insurer In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

    NEW YORK — A New York appeals court concluded that Bowlero Corp. has stated a cause of action against one of its insurers because its complaint sufficiently asserts that a policy’s special time element coverage extension was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the additional pathogenic materials policy exclusion does not apply, unanimously modifying the lower court’s ruling, reinstating the insured’s complaint against the one insurer and affirming the remainder of the lower court’s decision.

  • January 08, 2025

    $52.8 Million Settlement Approved In New York City Prison Confinement Case

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a more than $52.8 million settlement between New York City and prisoners who alleged that they were housed in “stealth isolation confinement facilities indefinitely” and denied due process.

  • January 08, 2025

    Hydroxychloroquine Maker Says Supplier’s Amended Complaint Not What Court Approved

    TRENTON, N.J. — A pharmaceutical manufacturer on Jan. 7 requested that a New Jersey federal court grant a pre-motion conference in anticipation of the manufacturer’s motion to strike a pharmaceutical supplier’s second amended complaint (SAC) in connection with its purchase of large quantities of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine phosphate from the manufacturer, contending that the SAC did not comply with the court’s order granting leave to file it, which was issued in connection with a grant of judgment on the pleadings in favor of the manufacturer on three of the supplier’s original five counts.

  • January 08, 2025

    Judge Refuses To Reconsider Dismissal Of Philadelphia Eagles’ Coverage Dispute

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge denied the owner and operator of the Philadelphia Eagles football organization’s motion to reconsider the dismissal of its action seeking a declaration as to coverage for its losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, rejecting the insured’s contention that the present lawsuit “is unlike any other that already has been decided and warrants proceeding past a motion to dismiss.”

  • January 07, 2025

    Federal Trade Commission Announces Refund Process For Bogus COVID-19 Treatments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission on Jan. 6 announced a refund process for consumers who purchased treatment plans for COVID-19, cancer and Parkinson’s disease, which the FTC says were deceptively marketed by Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical Inc.; some of them were priced at as much as $200,000.

  • January 06, 2025

    Ex-Employee Fired For Refusing COVID Vaccine Amends Discrimination Complaint

    PORTLAND, Ore. — A former employee of a sportswear company who was terminated after declining a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination filed an amended complaint alleging that her employer failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs, dropping a medical disability-based claim that was dismissed by an Oregon federal judge pursuant to the employer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.

  • January 03, 2025

    Standing Is Among Issues Raised In Motion To Dismiss ERISA Suit Over Surcharges

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Arguing in part that the plaintiffs lack standing, a company sued over surcharges imposed on participants in its self-funded health plan for tobacco use and for failing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 has moved in North Carolina federal court for dismissal.

  • January 03, 2025

    11th Circuit Denies Rehearing In Remanded Assisted Living COVID Wrongful Death Case

    ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied an assisted living facility’s petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of a split panel decision affirming a judgment of a Florida federal court remanding to state court a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the personal representatives of a woman who died from COVID-19 while under the care of the facility.

  • December 23, 2024

    2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Kodak Shareholder Derivative Action

    NEW YORK — The dismissal of a shareholder derivative action alleging that a company’s officers and directors enriched themselves at the company’s expense when they conducted a series of stock transactions was upheld by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, with the panel finding that the plaintiff shareholders had waived their challenge to the lower court’s factual findings in the case.

  • December 16, 2024

    PPE Reseller Says No Factual Dispute Exists As To Suppliers’ Contractual Failure

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — In a lawsuit brought by a medical equipment company against a health care product distributor and its CEO seeking the return of a $323,640 down payment for a shipment of nitrile gloves it never received, the company moved a New York federal court for summary judgment, contending that there are no undisputed issues of material fact regarding the distributor’s failures to fulfill its contractual obligations and that its defense of commercial impracticability fails.

  • December 16, 2024

    United Tells 5th Circuit Class Incorrectly Certified In Vaccine Mandate Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Texas erred in partially granting a motion for class certification filed by United Airlines Inc. employees in a case over the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate as Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23’s commonality, predominance or superiority requirements were not satisfied, United Airlines argues in an appellant/cross-appellee brief filed in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.