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Mealey's Coronavirus

  • April 18, 2025

    Magistrate Advises Dismissal Of ‘As Regarded’ ADA Claim Based On Vaccination Status

    PITTSBURGH — Concluding that being unvaccinated for COVID-19 cannot be the basis for a perceived disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge recommended granting the partial motion to dismiss of a pharmaceutical company in a former employee’s lawsuit alleging that the company failed to accommodate what it perceived as the medical disability of being unvaccinated and thus immunocompromised.

  • April 18, 2025

    Suquamish Tribe Opposes Insurers’ High Court Petition In Tribal Jurisdiction Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Suquamish Tribe in Washington filed an opposition to insurers’ petition for writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to determine “whether a tribal court can exercise jurisdiction over nonmembers of the tribe based on off-reservation conduct,” asking the high court to not disturb the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ opinion that affirmed a federal court’s finding that a tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over a COVID-19 coverage suit involving tribal properties on tribal land.

  • April 17, 2025

    COVID Vaccine Failure-To- Accommodate Claims Dropped Against Third-Party Evaluators

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A New Jersey federal court filed an opinion after earlier granting the motion to dismiss of a medical services provider and a physician in a lawsuit by an employment candidate alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), negligence and other claims in connection with an assessment of the employee’s medical history requested by the prospective employer after the candidate requested a medical exemption from a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.

  • April 15, 2025

    Engineer To 4th Circuit: Affirm Ruling In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — Contending in part that de novo review was correctly applied because of an “inexcusable failure to issue a timely decision,” a long-term disability (LTD) benefits claimant urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a judgment that she is owed past-due benefits because long COVID symptoms have disabled her from working as an engineer.

  • March 20, 2025

    Insurer To 4th Circuit: Overturn Ruling In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — Arguing that the lower court improperly applied de novo review and wrongly concluded that the claimant showed that she is disabled from working as an engineer because of long COVID symptoms, an insurer urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a judgment that the claimant is owed past-due long-term disability (LTD) benefits.

  • April 15, 2025

    Panel: Title VII Does Not Require Allowing Unvaccinated ER Doctor To Work Onsite

    PHILADELPHIA — Finding that accommodating an emergency room doctor’s religious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine would be an undue burden on a hospital, a panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of a Pennsylvania federal court, which granted summary judgment in favor of the hospital in a lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) after the doctor was refused a religious exemption from a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination and suspended.

  • April 15, 2025

    Walmart Appeals $100M Award In Glove Deal After Trial Court Denies JMOL, New Trial

    FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Walmart Inc. on April 14 filed a notice of appeal to the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after an Arkansas federal court denied its motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial in a case in which a jury awarded one of Walmart’s suppliers more than $100 million for reneging on a promise to purchase millions of boxes of nitrile gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • April 14, 2025

    Judge: LTD Administrator Didn’t Abuse Its Discretion In Long COVID Case

    MADISON, Wis. — Upholding denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a claimant who was diagnosed with long COVID, a Wisconsin federal judge said in part that “even when symptoms are subjective, functional limitations caused by those symptoms can be objectively measured, so it is not arbitrary and capricious to ask for objective evidence.”

  • April 09, 2025

    Judge Considers Subjective Evidence, Rules For Disability Claimant

    TACOMA, Wash. — A production line manager who points to receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine as the start of numerous symptoms that made him unable to work successfully challenged a disability insurer’s denial of his long-term disability (LTD) claim, with a Washington federal judge entering an April 8 judgment that he is entitled to relief including at least 24 months of benefits.

  • April 07, 2025

    Missouri Panel Partly Reverses Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri panel affirmed in part and reversed in part an insured’s breach of contract lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, finding that the court cannot hold that one of the insurers was entitled to judgment as a matter of law under its primary “all-risk” property insurance policy’s Pollution Contamination exclusion and the master policy's Mold, Mildew & Fungus Clause and Microorganism exclusion on the insured’s claims for loss of attraction coverage.

  • April 04, 2025

    SBA COVID-19 Grant Denial For Lack Of Documentation Was Not Arbitrary, Capricious

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted the motion for summary judgment of the Small Business Administration (SBA) in a company’s lawsuit alleging that the SBA’s denial of its application for a Shuttered Venue Operator Grant (SVOG) was arbitrary and capricious and deprived it of due process, concluding that the SBA’s reasons for denying the application were reasonable.

  • April 03, 2025

    Man Twice Tossed From City Meetings Appeals Ruling Vindicating City Officials

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A city commission meeting attendee on April 2 filed a notice of appeal to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of a ruling by a Kansas federal court that city officials are entitled to set limits on the types of speech allowed during public comment periods at commission meetings and granting summary judgment in favor of the officials in the attendee’s lawsuit alleging civil rights and other violations after he was ejected twice from meetings.

  • April 03, 2025

    New Trial, JMOL Denied To Walmart After $100M Verdict Against It In Glove Deal

    FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — An Arkansas federal court denied a motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial filed by Walmart Inc. after a jury awarded one of its suppliers more than $100 million for reneging on a promise to purchase millions of boxes of nitrile gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic, ruling that there was sufficient evidence presented at trial to support the jury’s verdict.

  • April 02, 2025

    Only WARN Act Claims Survive Summary Judgment In Pandemic Hotel Closure Class Suit

    NEW YORK — Former employees of a New York City Four Seasons hotel who were furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic may proceed in their class case only with federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act claims against the defendant that was their employer of record, a federal judge in New York ruled, partially granting and partially denying the defendants’ motions for summary judgment.

  • April 01, 2025

    8th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of COVID-Related Suit For Failure To File With EEOC

    ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a March 31 per curiam opinion affirmed without rationale the order of a Minnesota federal court dismissing the lawsuit of a former hospital employee who was terminated for refusing to wear an N95 mask as required by hospital policy after accepting a religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine.

  • April 01, 2025

    Washington Panel: Tribe Fails To Show COVID-19 Caused Direct Physical Loss, Damage

    SEATTLE — A Washington appeals court panel on March 31 held that a federally recognized Indian tribe did not state a claim that the coronavirus caused “direct physical loss or damage” to its insured properties, affirming a lower court’s dismissal of the insured’s bad faith complaint arising from the pandemic.

  • March 27, 2025

    High Court Hears Oral Arguments On FCC Authority Under Nondelegation Doctrine

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 26 heard oral arguments in consolidated cases filed by the Federal Communications Commission and telecom providers urging reversal of an en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that a subsidy program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine.”

  • March 24, 2025

    High Court Won’t Review COVID Deaths Suit Against Nursing Home Operators

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a California nursing home operator and affiliated defendants that sought to challenge the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of the remand to state court of a claim against them for the deaths of 15 elderly residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, which they contended was preempted by the federal PREP Act.

  • March 21, 2025

    Florida Panel Affirms No Coverage Ruling In Insureds’ Coronavirus Suit

    MIAMI — A Florida appeals court panel held that hotel insureds are not owed business interruption coverage in the absence of “direct physical loss” or “damage” to their properties, affirming a lower court’s ruling in favor of the insurer in a coverage dispute arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • March 21, 2025

    Judge Excludes Expert In Stock Price Case, Grants Test Maker Summary Judgment

    SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge in Utah granted a diagnostic test manufacturer summary judgment in a lawsuit by stockholders for allegedly misrepresenting the accuracy of its COVID-19 tests after the judge found that the stockholders’ expert could not prove loss causation.

  • March 20, 2025

    Parties Stipulate To Dismissal In Suit Alleging Damaged Credit During COVID-19

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A credit reporting agency and a borrower on March 19 filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice in a North Carolina federal court in the borrower’s lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by the agency in reporting his car loan as delinquent despite an accommodation the borrower claimed to have obtained from the lender.

  • March 19, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Suit Against GEICO After Parties File Joint Notice Of Dismissal

    CHICAGO — The same day the parties filed a joint notice of dismissal, an Illinois federal judge dismissed with prejudice insureds’ lawsuit alleging that auto 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.

  • March 18, 2025

    No Rehearing In Overturn Of State Law Allowing Ballot Receipt After Election Day

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied panel rehearing and rehearing en banc of a panel decision striking 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, with five circuit judges dissenting from the denial.

  • March 18, 2025

    COVID-19 Rent Moratorium Does Not Excuse Landlord From Paying Building Mortgage

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Concluding that a building owner being legally prevented from collecting rents during the COVID-19 pandemic did not excuse his obligation to pay loans on his multifamily building, a New York federal magistrate recommended that the lenders’ motions for summary judgment, default judgment and judgment of foreclosure be granted.

  • March 14, 2025

    Airlines Seek Judgment On Rest Of Claims Of Flyer Who Could Not Mask During COVID

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A group of airlines on March 13 moved a Kentucky federal court for judgment on the pleadings or summary judgment in a lawsuit by an airline passenger who was prevented from flying because a disability prevented him from wearing a mask as required by the federal transportation mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic, contending that the statutes invoked by the passenger did not apply.