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June 19, 2026
LONDON — An English judge granted a Bermudian insurer’s application for an anti-suit injunction against several insureds based in Texas and Louisiana who sued the insurer in Louisiana and have refused to arbitrate COVID-19 insurance claims, finding that a Louisiana state law barring arbitration of insurance disputes does not apply to the insurer’s arbitration agreement and awarding it more than $700,000 and 400,000 English pounds in attorney fees and costs.
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June 18, 2026
EL PASO, Texas — A Texas federal magistrate judge recommended granting a dismissal motion filed by Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan administrators in a woman’s suit asserting claims against the administrators, a physician, his practice and a hospital regarding the alleged negligent treatment she received during a joint replacement surgery after which she contracted COVID-19, finding that the woman cannot plead ERISA claims while arguing that ERISA is inapplicable.
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June 18, 2026
SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge granted summary judgment for an equipment dealer in a former employee’s suit alleging that the dealer violated the False Claims Act (FCA) when receiving a COVID-related Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan by altering or misrepresenting its payroll records, finding that the former employee failed to establish the materiality and scienter required to establish liability under the FCA.
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June 18, 2026
DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by a student who was suspended for repeatedly defying her school’s COVID-19 masking policy after a panel of the court affirmed the judgment of a Wyoming federal court dismissing the lawsuit alleging that the student’s suspension was a violation of her First and 14th Amendment rights.
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June 17, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — A federal court in Virginia “committed legal error” and “erroneously ignored the directive of our binding Bojangles [Stafford v. Bojangles’ Restaurants, Inc.] precedent” when it determined that a proposed class of Anheuser-Busch LLC employees who allege they were not paid for pre- and post-shift activities met Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23’s commonality and predominance requirements, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding “significant variation in the” employees’ work.
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June 11, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for July 7 in the case of a former underwriter who says he was disabled by cognitive impairments and other symptoms he attributes to long COVID; issues in the appeal include assessing differing medical opinions and whether new reasons for denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits were improperly raised in the lower court.
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June 11, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee appeals court held that a lower court erred in holding that a custom clothing company and its subsidiaries’ properly invoked coverage under a commercial property insurance policy, holding that the governmental restrictions closing or limiting the insureds’ operations because of the coronavirus pandemic did not trigger the policy’s coverage requirement that direct physical loss of property needed to occur.
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June 10, 2026
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge denied University of Notre Dame Du Lac’s motion to dismiss a former student’s putative class action breach of contract and unjust enrichment suit arising from the university’s spring 2020 COVID-19 transition to remote education and refusal to issue tuition or fee refunds, finding that the former student sufficiently alleged a plausible contract for in-person education to survive the motion.
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June 10, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After parties filed a stipulation of dismissal and a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge issued a dismissal order, a court clerk filed a judgment dismissing with prejudice a Chicago area business’s suit against the federal government seeking payroll tax refunds totaling more than $500,000 for the tax periods in 2020 and 2021 representing employee retention credits (ERC) provided for as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
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June 08, 2026
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. — The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Court of Appeals affirmed on alternative grounds a tribal court’s denial of insurers’ motion to dismiss a casino and Native American tribe’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment claims seeking coverage for losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic, holding that the tribal court has personal jurisdiction over the insurers by consent under the policies’ service of suit clause and through sufficient minimum contacts that are consistent with due process.
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June 08, 2026
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida federal judge dismissed claims against four of six insurers sued by a company operating a variety of businesses, including convenience stores, seeking coverage for more than $73 million in alleged COVID-19-related losses, finding that as to the four insurers, the company failed to plead specific facts regarding instances of COVID-19 at a covered location and instead relied on conclusory allegations.
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June 03, 2026
DECATUR, Ga. — Emory University sued its insurer for breach of contract, bad faith and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing in a Georgia court, alleging that an underlying lawsuit seeking money back after classes and services were impacted by the coronavirus pandemic alleges “precisely the types of claims” that the policy’s Educators Legal Liability (ELL) section expressly covers.
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June 02, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s rulings dismissing a physician’s claims and granting summary judgment to a medical clinic in her suit alleging violations of state and federal laws related to her termination, finding in part that the COVID regulation for infectious disease prevention she claims the clinic violated does not include the type of public policy expression required under applicable case law.
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June 01, 2026
SEATTLE — Concluding that a Washington federal judge did not err in dismissing for failure to state a claim the second amended complaint of several former city employees who were terminated after they refused to become vaccinated against COVID-19, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the dismissal in a per curiam opinion.
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May 29, 2026
SPOKANE, Wash. — Finding that a hospital plausibly alleged that it had experienced a partial suspension of its operations during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a government order, a Washington federal judge on May 28 denied the government’s motion to dismiss the hospital’s complaint seeking payment of a tax refund of more than $11.5 million representing employee retention tax credits (ERCs) provided for by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
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May 27, 2026
BOSTON — The trustees of Boston University sued its educators legal liability insurer for breach of contract and declaratory judgment in a Massachusetts court, seeking coverage for the $1.76 million in costs that the university incurred by defending against underlying class action lawsuits alleging that it breached its promise of in-person instruction and services when it transitioned to online learning in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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May 21, 2026
TULSA, Okla. — An Oklahoma manufacturing company agreed to pay $4.25 million to more than 40 employees who were terminated after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine for religious and disability-related reasons as part of a consent decree entered to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging the company violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it denied vaccination accommodation requests and fired the workers.
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May 21, 2026
DENVER — A student who was suspended for repeatedly defying her school’s COVID-19 masking policy petitioned the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc after a panel of the court affirmed the judgment of a Wyoming federal court dismissing a lawsuit alleging that the student’s suspension was a violation of her First and 14th Amendment rights.
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May 20, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States says the U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition for writ of certiorari filed by a group of healthcare workers seeking review of whether a now-repealed New York COVID-19 vaccine law violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the U.S. Constitution, contending that the case “is an unsuitable vehicle” for the court’s review because the “principal dispute in this case involves state law.”
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May 19, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 18 denied the petition for a writ of certiorari of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan recipient whose loan forgiveness application was denied by the Small Business Administration (SBA) because payments by the recipient to independent contractors should not have been included in the calculation of the recipient’s payroll costs, a decision that was upheld by a panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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May 18, 2026
SEATTLE — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel unanimously found that an appeal brought by several former city employees who were terminated after they refused to become vaccinated for COVID-19 was suitable for decision without oral argument, stating that the employees’ appeal of a Washington federal court dismissal of the lawsuit shall be submitted on the briefs and record on May 20.
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May 15, 2026
NEWARK, N.J. — In a lawsuit brought by a medical testing lab seeking reimbursement from health insurers for COVID-19 testing, the insurers filed an amended counterclaim and third-party complaint seeking recoupment of $30 million they allegedly overpaid the lab after a New Jersey federal judge dismissed without prejudice state law claims by the insurers based on duplicative billing and billing for ancillary tests by the lab and the lab’s billing service.
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May 13, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) official indicted for concealing and destroying records relating to the origins of the virus that caused COVID-19 and other COVID-related matters has pleaded not guilty to all counts of the indictment in a Maryland federal court.
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May 12, 2026
NEW YORK — Pursuant to a premotion conference, a New York federal judge ordered the federal government to file by May 29 its motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a skilled nursing facility seeking to block the government from enforcing a recoupment demand of more than $31 million for allegedly erroneous Medicare payments the nursing facility received for skilled nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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May 11, 2026
CHICAGO — Ruling that a former pitching prospect’s claims of negligence and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in requiring that he be vaccinated for COVID-19 and in treating the symptoms that resulted from the vaccination and ultimately ended his career were time-barred, an Illinois federal judge granted without prejudice a motion to dismiss by the Chicago White Sox (CWS) and Major League Baseball.