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October 07, 2026
PHOENIX — Parties submitted a joint settlement status report in Arizona federal court in a suit filed by a business against an employment services organization with which it contracted for payroll tax services for breach of contract, claiming that the organization retained for three years Employee Retention Credits (ERC) that the business earned and did not pay it additional interest that accrued during the time the organization retained the ERCs.
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October 07, 2026
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge granted a college’s motion for summary judgment on a former student’s claim for unjust enrichment but denied the motion as to breach of implied contract in a putative class action suit against Dickinson College for its alleged failure to partially refund tuition and mandatory fees, finding that the “unjust enrichment claim” lacks viability because Pennsylvania law prohibits unjust enrichment claims when parties are governed by a contract whether it is express or implied.
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October 07, 2026
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina granted an insurer’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed with prejudice an automotive parts manufacturer insured’s breach of contract, bad faith and unfair and deceptive trade practices lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses caused by the “presence of COVID-19” at its facilities, holding that no coverage exists under the policy’s Communicable Disease Coverage Endorsement and that, alternatively, any potential coverage would be voided under the policy’s concealment and fraud provision.
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October 06, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 5 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a group of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) employees seeking review to determine how much detail is needed regarding a plaintiff’s religious beliefs to file a Title VII claim and survive dismissal after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority affirmed dismissal of religious discrimination claims stemming from requests for exemption from COVID-19 testing, masking and distancing guidelines.
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October 06, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 5 denied a petition for certiorari filed by former Bellingham, Wash., city employees seeking review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling affirming dismissal of the employees’ claims that their 14th Amendment rights were violated after they refused to become vaccinated against COVID-19.
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October 05, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 5 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by United Airlines Inc. concerning class certification in a case by workers who accuse the airline of discrimination by failing to provide religious and medical accommodations from the COVID-19 vaccine requirement; the high court’s orders list noted that Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh would have granted the petition.
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October 05, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After a respondent brief was filed at its request, the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 5 denied a certiorari petition concerning a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that claims administration agreements (CAAs) and other ancillary documents a health plan beneficiary requested fell outside a statutory disclosure requirement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 30, 2026
JACKSON, Miss. — A nurse who had previously disclosed to her employer continuing medical conditions related to COVID-19 filed a complaint on Sept. 29 in Mississippi federal court against the medical center where she worked, asserting that her former employer violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in part by retaliating against her for requesting accommodations for injuries from an auto accident and for complaining about uncompensated meal breaks.
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September 30, 2026
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc of its ruling affirming a lower court’s grants of summary judgment in favor of the Small Business Administration (SBA) in three related cases; the Seventh Circuit previously held that the SBA’s Corporate Group Rule limiting the aggregate amount of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act within a single corporate group was not improperly applied retroactively because loan forgiveness remained a future benefit.
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September 29, 2026
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge dismissed without prejudice all claims against the parent company of a psychiatry practice and dismissed in part claims against the practice for violation of the False Claims Act (FCA) and related state law, finding in part that the allegations against the parent company failed to connect it to specific alleged fraudulent acts of the practice.
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September 23, 2026
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — An Arkansas federal judge dismissed an illegal exaction suit filed by a county resident asserting that the county misused federal funds provided for COVID-19 relief for expansion of a detention center, finding that the federal funds were not tax-derived funds and therefore could not support the Arkansas constitutional public funds illegal-exaction claim.
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September 23, 2026
DURHAM, N.C. — Less than three weeks after a North Carolina federal judge granted summary judgment in favor of four Durham businesses on their claims for declaratory judgment, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and unfair and deceptive trade practices in their lawsuit seeking coverage for their business interruption losses arising from the lockdowns prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the insureds and their mutual commercial property insurer filed a joint notice stating that they have reached a settlement in principle and seeking a stay of all case deadlines and adjournment of the Sept. 24 pretrial conference.
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September 23, 2026
SAN DIEGO — A diagnostic lab filed an amended complaint in California federal court, alleging that health care plans and their administrators failed to pay and process claims for diagnostic tests for COVID-19 provided by the lab to individuals with benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) or with Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.
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September 23, 2026
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York appellate court reversed the portion of a lower court’s ruling granting dismissal of some of an estate’s claims in a negligence, health law violations and wrongful death suit against a nursing home after a resident’s death purportedly from COVID-19, finding that the nursing home failed to show that it was immune under the Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act (EDTPA).
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September 22, 2026
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Saying in part that the health care professionals who treated the claimant or reviewed her medical file concluded “nearly unanimously . . . that her Long Covid diagnosis and subjective symptoms did not render her disabled within the meaning of the Policy,” a Virginia federal judge let the challenged termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits stand following de novo review.
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September 18, 2026
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York appellate court reversed a lower court’s ruling denying dismissal of a wrongful death suit against a nursing and rehabilitation facility and its owner and operator after a woman died purportedly from contracting COVID-19 at the facility, finding that the lower court should have dismissed the complaint because the defendants were immune from liability under the Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act (EDTPA).
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September 17, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Reversing a lower court’s dismissal of a physician’s suit alleging federal and state constitutional violations against the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice and related officials regarding their investigations of complaints against him, which he alleged caused economic injuries and chilled his speech, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that the physician has standing to seek damages and prospective relief, including his opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and business closures.
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September 16, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Any promise a Pennsylvania university made for in-person education was discharged in March 2020 when the state’s governor issued an executive order temporarily closing schools in the state due to the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled, granting summary judgment to Villanova University in a student’s putative class action seeking damages for breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
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September 16, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a press release that in partnership with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the SBA Office of Inspector General, it obtained felony charges against almost 80 fraud defendants purportedly responsible for an alleged $100 million in intended loss through exploiting COVID-19-era loan programs under the SBA.
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September 15, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s judgment for six former employees of a state transit agency who were awarded more than $1 million each by a jury for the agency’s failure to accommodate their religious objections to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, holding that the agency was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law or a new trial because it did not carry its burden of showing that the religious objections could not be accommodated without undue hardship.
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September 15, 2026
DETROIT — A Michigan appellate court affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary disposition to a county and a village in a couple’s suit alleging state and federal constitutional violations against the village and county related to permits for the construction of a house that was delayed purportedly by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the lower court correctly granted summary disposition to the village and county for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
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September 15, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — A split Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment to an employer on a religious discrimination claim and affirmed summary judgment to the employer on a race discrimination claim, finding that an employee’s beliefs underlying her refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine were sufficiently religious in nature but that the company’s stated reason for viewing the woman’s request as secular was not pretext for race discrimination because the company denied similar requests across races.
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September 09, 2026
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A former railroad conductor and his wife filed a complaint in West Virginia federal court against his former employer, a railroad carrier, asserting claims for retaliation and loss of consortium related to his “removal” from employment, which he alleges was done in retaliation for raising concerns about safety and deficiencies in equipment, as well as refusal to comply with a requirement to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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September 09, 2026
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted in part motions to dismiss in investors’ putative class suit alleging that a company that operates skilled nursing facilities used improper Medicare billing practices to inflate revenue, finding that Securities Act claims survive against the company, individual defendants and certain underwriter defendants for financial misstatements but that Exchange Act claims are dismissed without prejudice for failure to plead scienter.
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September 08, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The city of Bellingham, Wash., waived its right to respond to former city employees’ petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling affirming dismissal of the employees’ claims that their 14th Amendment rights were violated after they refused to become vaccinated against COVID-19.