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Mealey's Coronavirus

  • September 06, 2024

    Magistrate Judge Allows Rebuttal Witness, 2nd Report In COVID-19 Class Suit

    EUGENE, Ore. — An Oregon federal magistrate judge on Sept. 5 ruled that a rebuttal witness on ventilation systems can testify for state officials facing a class action from a group of inmates in Oregon prison who allege that they were subjected to cruel and unusual punishment when state officials failed to protect them from heightened exposure to COVID-19.

  • September 04, 2024

    Reconsideration Denied In Mortgage Borrowers’ Damaged Credit Rating Lawsuit

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — In a lawsuit by mortgage borrowers alleging violations by their lender of the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRAA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Rosenthal Act that led to their credit score being damaged, a California federal judge on Sept. 3 denied the borrowers’ motion for consideration of his summary judgment grant that ruled that the lender was entitled to report the borrowers’ loan as past due after they entered into a repayment plan.

  • September 03, 2024

    5th Circuit Panel Refuses To Reconsider Dismissal Of $192M Coronavirus Coverage Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an Aug. 30 per curiam order denied Texas’ largest nonprofit health system petition seeking rehearing en banc of a majority opinion that affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of its commercial property insurer in its lawsuit seeking coverage for $192 million in business interruption losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

  • September 03, 2024

    6th Circuit: No Bargaining Need For Nursing Home’s Pandemic Hiring, Pay Decisions

    CINCINNATI — A nursing home owner’s hiring and pay decisions in response to staffing shortages at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 were made due to exigent circumstances and did not require bargaining with the union representing two groups of employees, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, partially affirming and partially reversing a decision by the National Labor Relations Board.

  • September 03, 2024

    PPE Supplier Blames Delivery Failure On Impracticability, Resists Summary Judgment

    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 the company never received, the distributor responded to a letter motion by the company seeking leave to file a motion for summary judgment, stating that the record is “full of genuine disputes as to most of the facts” and that summary judgment would be “wildly inappropriate.”

  • September 03, 2024

    StubHub Pays $300K To Settle California Suit For Failure To Refund For COVID

    LOS ANGELES — The California Attorney General’s Office and StubHub Inc. filed a joint stipulation in California state court resolving the state’s claims that the ticket reselling website wrongly denied cash refunds to customers in violation of California consumer protection laws after it agreed to pay nearly $300,000 in civil penalties and previously paid roughly $20 million in cash refunds to customers.

  • August 30, 2024

    Lab Seeking COVID Test Reimbursement Allowed To Try To Establish ERISA Standing

    NEWARK, N.J. — A medical testing laboratory seeking reimbursement for COVID-19 testing from two insurers filed a second amended complaint after a New Jersey federal judge terminated the insurers’ motion dismiss, concluding that further amendment of the complaint could resolve a question of whether the laboratory has derivative standing under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

  • August 30, 2024

    Florida Deputy Sheriff Convicted For Fraudulent PPP Loan Appeals To 11th Circuit

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Broward County, Fla., deputy sheriff convicted on various criminal counts in connection with a fraudulent application for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and sentenced to four months imprisonment filed a notice of appeal on Aug. 29 to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a Florida federal district court.

  • August 30, 2024

    Radio Personality’s Company Seeks Rehearing After Religious Bias Claims Reinstated

    CINCINNATI — Lampo Group LLC, the company of radio personality Dave Ramsey, filed a petition in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for rehearing en banc after a panel partially reversed a trial court’s dismissal of claims by an employee who alleges that the company failed to take precautions against the spread of COVID-19 during the initial days of the coronavirus pandemic.

  • August 29, 2024

    Florida Deputy Sheriff Gets 4 Months In Prison, Fine For Fraudulent PPP Loan

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida federal judge denied motions of a Broward County deputy sheriff for judgment of acquittal and for a new trial, granted her motion for a downward sentencing variance and sentenced her to four months in prison on four counts, to be served concurrently, and to pay a $4,000 fine after a jury found her guilty on all four counts charged in a March superseding indictment stemming from a fraudulent application for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan.

  • August 29, 2024

    Judge Dismisses Coverage Dispute Over $1M Settlement Of Canceled Music Festival

    AUSTIN, Texas — Two days after the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal, a federal judge in Texas on Aug. 28 dismissed an insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying $1 million class action settlement arising from the insured’s refusal to refund ticket sales for the South by Southwest festival that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • August 29, 2024

    $2 Million Class Settlement Reached In Catholic University Pandemic Closure Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A New York woman who sued Catholic University of America for failing to provide students with the full value of their education in spring 2020 when the school, like many others around the country, closed its campus due to the coronavirus pandemic filed a motion in a federal court in the District of Columbia seeking preliminary approval of a $2 million class settlement.

  • August 28, 2024

    California Judge Enters Judgment In Hotel Insureds’ Coronavirus Coverage Dispute

    LOS ANGELES — A California judge entered an amended judgment on a jury’s special verdict in favor of a commercial property insurer in hotel insureds’ breach of contract lawsuit arising from the COVID-19 pandemic after the parties signed a confidential settlement agreement and successfully requested dismissal of the insureds’ appeal.

  • August 26, 2024

    Lender Opposes Reconsideration Of Summary Judgment Grant In Damaged Credit Case

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — In a lawsuit by mortgage borrowers alleging violations of the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRAA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Rosenthal Act that led to their credit score being damaged, a mortgage lender opposed a motion seeking reconsideration of a California federal judge’s grant of summary judgment ruling that the lender was entitled to report the borrowers’ loan as past due after they entered into a repayment plan.

  • August 22, 2024

    Federal Government Seeks Ban Of Tax Preparers Who Filed $40M In False COVID Credits

    HOUSTON — The federal government has filed a complaint seeking to block two tax preparers and their associated tax preparation company from ever again being involved in tax preparation either by providing tax preparation services or having any relationship with any entity providing tax preparation services because the preparers allegedly filed tax returns claiming refunds for completely fabricated COVID-19 and other tax credits for their customers that amounted to more than $40 million.

  • August 21, 2024

    High Risk Of Developing Complications From COVID-19 Rendered Doctor Disabled

    SAN FRANCISCO — A disability insurer’s denial of a pediatrician’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits claim was de novo wrong because the pediatrician’s high risk of exposure to COVID-19 and high risk of developing complications from the virus based on her underlying medical issues rendered her disabled from performing the duties of her own occupation, a California federal judge said in granting the pediatrician’s motion for judgment on the administrative record.

  • August 20, 2024

    Cabbie Who Quit Because Of COVID-19 Lack Of Fares May Collect CARES Act Benefits

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of a District of Columbia appeals court reversed the decision of an administrative law judge (ALJ) denying pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) benefits provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to a taxi driver who claimed benefits due to a sharp decline in fares during the COVID-19 pandemic that rendered him unable to pay for his taxi and equipment.

  • August 20, 2024

    Teacher Awarded $1.1M On Retaliation, Defamation Claims In Pandemic Speech Case

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut teacher who alleged that she was subjected to retaliation and defamation after making public comments regarding the need for a safety plan during the coronavirus pandemic and stating on social media that there had been an unreported case of COVID-19 in her school was awarded $1.1 million by a federal jury in her state.

  • August 20, 2024

    Pennsylvania Law Firm Seeks COVID-19 Employee Retention Credits It Says It Is Owed

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania law firm filed suit against the federal government seeking a tax refund of $790,318.08 for 2020 and 2021, claiming that it is entitled to employee retention tax credits as provided for by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, along with statutory interest and attorney fees, for wage payments it paid to its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • August 19, 2024

    9th Circuit Affirms Remand Of Nursing Home COVID-19 Deaths Lawsuit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 16 affirmed the remand to a state court of a lawsuit brought by relatives and successors of 15 people who died in a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding no federal jurisdiction exists over their claims against the facility and affiliated defendants for elder abuse, wrongful death and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), and affirmed an attorney fees award against the nursing home defendants.

  • August 19, 2024

    Dave Ramsey Worker’s Pandemic Religious Bias Claims Reinstated By 6th Circuit

    CINCINNATI — A former employee of Dave Ramsey and his company, Lampo Group LLC, who alleges that the company failed to take precautions against the spread of COVID-19 during the initial days of the coronavirus pandemic may proceed with his religious bias claims but failed to meet Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b)’s heightened pleading requirements for his common-law fraud claim, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, partially reversing a trial court’s dismissal of all of the employee’s claims.

  • August 19, 2024

    6th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Finding Vaccine Claims Must Go To Arbitration

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by Kalitta Air LLC pilots after a panel affirmed a trial court ruling that their putative class claims over the airline’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate must go through arbitration first as minor disputes pursuant to the Railway Labor Act (RLA) because the dispute requires interpretation of the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

  • August 16, 2024

    Ex-Employee Denied Vaccination Exemption Amends Religious Discrimination Complaint

    DETROIT — A former employee of a health insurance company filed an amended complaint alleging that she was wrongly denied a religious exemption from the company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy after a Michigan federal court determined that the proposed amended complaint alleged sufficient facts to support her claims and denied as moot the company’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.

  • August 16, 2024

    Canadian’s Permission To Enter U.S. Not Unreasonably Delayed Given COVID-19 Backlog

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal court granted the federal government’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a Canadian citizen seeking to compel the adjudication of the citizen’s application to enter the United States as a nonimmigrant, which had been pending without a decision for nearly 26 months at the time of the lawsuit, finding that the delay was not unreasonable given government’s limited resources and a backlog largely created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • August 13, 2024

    Bid To Reargue Procedural Deficiency Of COVID-Era Malpractice Claim Denied

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — After a hearing on the motion, a Connecticut state court judge on Aug. 12 denied a physician’s attempt to reargue her contention that an opinion letter necessary to support a malpractice claim of a patient alleging that her head injury was misdiagnosed as gastroenteritis during the COVID-19 pandemic was insufficient and that the lawsuit should have been dismissed.