Mealey's Coronavirus : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Coronavirus

April 01, 2024
Washington Judge Certifies 2 Questions In University’s Coronavirus Coverage Suit

SEATTLE — A Washington judge granted in part an insurer’s motion to certify issues to the Washington Court of Appeals for discretionary review in the University of Washington’s lawsuit seeking coverage for losses incurred by its medical and athletic properties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, staying the lawsuit pending resolution of the two controlling questions of law to determine whether commercial property insurance policies insure business income losses that are related to a pandemic.
April 01, 2024
Federal Government Tells U.S. High Court Military Chaplains’ Vaccine Case Is Moot

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly ruled that it lacked jurisdiction over an appeal by military chaplains challenging the denial of their requests for religious accommodation from a requirement that they be vaccinated against COVID-19, the secretary of Defense and other federal government officials argue in a response to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the chaplains.
March 29, 2024
Judge Accepts Officials’ Plea Agreements In Veterans Home COVID-19 Death Cases

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A former superintendent and a former medical director of a veterans home entered plea agreements in a Massachusetts state court for their roles in commingling COVID-19-symptomatic residents with asymptomatic residents, leading to 76 deaths, admitting that the charges against them sufficed to make a finding of guilt while agreeing to satisfy court-imposed conditions for three months.
March 29, 2024
Insurer Defends Motion Seeking Appellate Review Of COVID-19 Coverage Dispute

SEATTLE — Replying to the University of Washington’s opposition to its motion to certify issues to the Washington Court of Appeals for discretionary review and to stay the university’s lawsuit seeking coverage for losses incurred by its medical and athletic properties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an insurer argues that it is not seeking to delay the case but just wants “clear guidance” on the threshold legal question of whether commercial property insurance policies insure business income losses that are related to a pandemic.
March 29, 2024
7th Circuit: Crescent Plaza, Sandy Point Dental Foreclose Rome Hotel Owner’s Appeal

CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that its decisions in Crescent Plaza Hotel Owner, L.P. v. Zurich American Insurance Co. and Sandy Point Dental, P.C. v. Cincinnati Insurance Co. foreclose arguments by the owner of luxury hotel in Rome seeking coverage for its lost business income and extra expenses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 27, 2024
SBA, Real Estate Developer Claiming Improper Denial Of PPP Loan Forgiveness Settle

HOUSTON — A real estate developer that sued the Small Business Administration (SBA) and various federal government entities contending that the agency improperly applied rules to deny the developer forgiveness for a Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on March 26, indicating that parties had reached a resolution of the dispute.
March 26, 2024
9th Circuit: Investor Does Not Allege Scienter In COVID-19 ‘Cure’ Suit

PASADENA, Calif. — A panel of judges in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 25 upheld the dismissal of putative class complaint in which an investor claimed that a pharmaceutical company and certain of its executives misled investors by claiming that a COVID-19 treatment was a “cure,” with the panel finding that the investor did not adequately allege a strong inference of scienter.
March 25, 2024
Parties Stipulate To Dismissal Of Contract Dispute Over Sale Of COVID-19 PPE

WICHITA, Kan. — In a lawsuit brought by a customer alleging breach of a contract to purchase nitrile gloves and misrepresentation by a personal protective equipment seller, the parties on March 22 filed a stipulation of dismissal and the case was terminated via a docket entry by a Kansas federal court.
March 25, 2024
FDA And Doctors Complaining That FDA’s Ivermectin Tweets Were Ultra Vires Settle

GALVESTON, Texas — In a lawsuit by a group of doctors claiming that the Food and Drug Administration exceeded its statutory authority when it created social media and government website posts recommending that people not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19, a Texas federal judge on March 22 dismissed the case with prejudice pursuant to the stipulation of dismissal filed by the parties.
March 25, 2024
Panel Reverses Court In Coverage Suit Over $1M Settlement Of Canceled Music Festival

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer in the insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying $1 million class action settlement arising from its refusal to refund ticket sales for the South by Southwest festival that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the policy’s contact and professional services exclusion do not bar coverage.
March 25, 2024
Judge Grants Summary Judgment On Driver’s UCL Claim For ‘Unfair’ COVID Premiums

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted GEICO’s motion for summary judgment on an insured’s claim against it for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by unfairly profiting from a premium giveback program initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part citing evidence that state insurance regulators deemed GEICO’s givebacks sufficient.
March 25, 2024
Judge: Maskless Patient Denied Treatment Fails To Adequately State ADA Claim

PORTLAND, Ore. — In a lawsuit by a former medical clinic patient against the clinic and some of its staff members alleging that their denial of treatment because of his refusal to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic was in violation of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an Oregon federal judge on March 22 granted a motion by the individual defendants and dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, concluding that the patient failed to adequately state a claim under the ADA.
March 25, 2024
1st Circuit: 2023 Mass. Law Bars 2020 Suit Over University’s Pandemic Closure

BOSTON — The retroactive application of a Massachusetts law signed into effect in August 2022 that bars actions for damages and equitable monetary relief against institutions of higher education for acts or omissions in response to the coronavirus pandemic does not violate the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution, a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s summary judgment ruling in a class complaint by students against Boston University (BU).
March 22, 2024
6th Circuit Largely Upholds Dismissal Of Vaccine Religious Exemption Claims

CINCINNATI — Putative class claims by 46 hospital workers whose requests for religious exemption from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate were largely properly dismissed by a trial court as 44 of the 46 workers failed to establish standing, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing only as to two workers who sufficiently alleged that they resigned after their requests were denied but before the hospital reversed its decision.
March 21, 2024
Panel Reverses ‘Rare’ Case Where Diner Has Alleged Direct Physical Loss, Damage

SAN DIEGO — A California appeals panel held that a diner insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its business losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic is “one of those rare cases” where the insured has adequately asserted a direct physical loss or damage under its commercial property insurance policy “at least raising the specter of coverage,” reversing a lower court’s judgment in favor of the insurer and remanding.
March 21, 2024
California Panel Affirms Ruling In Coverage Suit Over Postponed Metallica Shows

LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer in the insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage under a “Cancellation, Abandonment and Non-Appearance Insurance” policy for the postponement of the last six shows of Metallica’s South American tour in 2020, finding that the policy’s “communicable disease” exclusion is not ambiguous and that its ordinary meaning includes the pathogen that underlies the disease.
March 21, 2024
University Worker Asks U.S. High Court To Decide COVID-19 Vaccine Question

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Supreme Court justices should decide whether Jacobson v. Massachusetts requires that a governmental action like a vaccine mandate is “subject to heightened scrutiny” and whether such a mandate by Michigan State University (MSU) failed that test, an MSU worker argues in her petition for a writ of certiorari.
March 20, 2024
8th Circuit Refuses To Rehear Coverage Suit Over Tax Revenue Losses Due To Closures

ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a Missouri city’s request to reconsider its ruling that a commercial property insurer owes no coverage for the city’s tax revenue losses due to governmental closure orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic, refusing to address the city’s argument that the “inartful” policy is not clear and unambiguous.
March 19, 2024
8th Circuit Affirms Denial Of Arbitration In $9M PPE Dispute With Chinese Company

ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Missouri federal court’s ruling denying a motion to compel arbitration filed by a U.S. wholesale distributor of personal protective equipment (PPE) regarding a dispute with a Chinese manufacturer over more than $9 million worth of nitrile gloves the manufacturer delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 19, 2024
Judge: Student Challenging COVID Vaccination Need Fails To State Plausible Claims

HANNIBAL, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge on March 18 granted a motion of a health sciences university to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a former medical student alleging breach of contract and violations of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Missouri state law against religious discrimination after she withdrew from the university because of its requirement that she be vaccinated for COVID-19 to participate in a clinical rotation.
March 19, 2024
Untimely Cert Petition By COVID-19 Test Provider Denied By U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 18 denied a motion to direct the clerk to file a petition for a writ of certiorari out of time submitted by a COVID-19 test provider after a panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of a California federal court dismissing five complaints brought by the provider seeking reimbursement from an insurer for COVID testing services under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
March 19, 2024
Insurers Challenge Ruling That Tribal Court Has Jurisdiction Over Coronavirus Suit

SEATTLE — Insurers asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider its Feb. 29 opinion that affirmed a lower federal court’s finding that a tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over a coronavirus coverage suit involving tribal properties on tribal land that the Suquamish Tribe brought against “nonmember, off-reservation” insurers that participate in a program that is tailored to and offered exclusively to tribes, arguing that the panel’s “unprecedented expansion of tribal-court jurisdiction warrants rehearing.”
March 19, 2024
Disability And Race Bias, Whistleblower Petitions Denied By U.S. High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 18 denied several employment-related petitions, including one by an employee who alleged that his employer’s policy regarding coronavirus and the accommodations it provided him violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), one concerning alleged whistleblowing and one by a former employee alleging race discrimination.
March 19, 2024
Coronavirus Tracing App Creator Again Denied Writ Of Injunction By High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A month and a half after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied its application for a writ of injunction, a software company on March 18 saw its application to enjoin Apple Inc.’s purported “censorship of software” rejected a second time, this time by the entire court.
March 19, 2024
Parties In COVID-Related Hydroxychloroquine Sales Row At Impasse After Mediation

TRENTON, N.J. — In a lawsuit brought by a pharmaceutical supplier alleging that a pharmaceutical manufacturer breached a contract for the purchase of large quantities of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine phosphate for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, the manufacturer notified a New Jersey federal court that court-ordered mediation had concluded with the parties at an impasse.