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Mealey's Coronavirus

  • 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.

  • October 15, 2024

    Temple University Agrees To $6.9M Class Settlement In Pandemic Closure Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia university has agreed to pay $6.9 million 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 coronavirus pandemic, according to an unopposed motion for preliminary settlement approval filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania.

  • October 14, 2024

    Borrower’s UCL, Elder Abuse Claims Over Potential Foreclosure Partly Dismissed

    SAN DIEGO — A federal judge in California on Oct. 11 granted in part and denied in part a lender’s motion to dismiss claims brought against it for financial elder abuse and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by a borrower who claims that during the coronavirus pandemic, the lender obstructed her efforts to modify her loan or obtain a reverse mortgage, leading her to potential foreclosure.

  • October 14, 2024

    Privacy Claims Over Health Care Provider’s Use Of Facebook Pixel May Proceed

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Mostly denying a health care organization’s motion to dismiss putative class privacy claims against it, a California federal judge found that a plaintiff sufficiently alleged most of her claims that the defendant’s use of Facebook Pixel to forward URLs and other information from her use of the company’s website to the social media company violates California law and the state’s constitution.

  • October 10, 2024

    Job Staffing Company Seeks $5.15M In Tax Refunds For Pandemic Employee Retention

    CINCINNATI — An Ohio employment staffing company has filed suit against the federal government seeking to collect a tax refund totaling more than $5.15 million it claims it is owed in employee retention tax credits as provided for by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

  • October 10, 2024

    Borrowers Claiming Damaged Credit Despite COVID-19 Forbearance Settle With Lender

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — Mortgage borrowers and their lender on Oct. 9 filed a stipulation to dismiss with prejudice in a California federal court, having settled the borrowers’ lawsuit alleging violations of state and federal credit reporting statutes that led to the borrowers’ credit score being damaged from their loan having been reported as past due after they entered into a repayment plan following four months of forbearance.

  • October 10, 2024

    9th Circuit Unseals Driver’s Brief Challenging GEICO’s ‘Unfair’ COVID-19 Rebates

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unsealed a brief filed by a driver appealing a federal judge’s grant of summary judgment on her class action claim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) to GEICO for allegedly unfairly retaining an estimated $238 million in additional premium relief the driver says it owed insureds after the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • October 09, 2024

    Bound By Another Planet, Judge Reconsiders Ruling Against Insurer In COVID-19 Suit

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge on Oct. 8 granted an insurer’s motion to reconsider the court’s ruling that denied its motion for partial judgment on the pleadings in Live Nation Entertainment Inc.’s breach of contract lawsuit arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, dismissing with prejudice Live Nation’s claims for coverage that require a showing of physical loss or damage after concluding that the court is bound by the holding in Another Planet Entertainment, LLC v. Vigilant Insurance Co. that a “bare allegation” that “the actual or potential presence of the COVID-19 virus rendered [plaintiff's] property unusable for its intended purpose” is insufficient to demonstrate physical loss or damage to the insured property.

  • October 09, 2024

    3rd Circuit Refuses To Rehear Consolidated Appeals In COVID-19 Coverage Suits

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 8 denied insureds’ petition seeking rehearing en banc of a panel’s rejection of 14 consolidated appeals of lower federal courts’ dismissals of the insureds’ lawsuits seeking coverage for their business interruption losses caused by the coronavirus and the subsequent shutdown orders, standing by the panel’s holding that the insureds’ loss of use of their properties’ intended business purposes is not a physical loss of property to trigger business income or extra expense under their respective policies.