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

Mealey's Coronavirus

March 05, 2025
10th Circuit Panel Denies Rehearing In Employee’s COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Case

DENVER — A panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a petition for rehearing and for rehearing en banc filed by a former nursing center employee seeking review of a panel judgment affirming the dismissal of her First Amendment free exercise claim stemming from her termination for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule.
March 05, 2025
Physicians Seek High Court Review Of State Professional Conduct Regulation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Physician advocacy groups and affiliated physicians have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision affirming a California federal court denial of a preliminary injunction that was sought to prevent enforcement of a California statute that regulates professional conduct and provides for discipline of physicians who deviate from standards of care because it could be used to sanction physicians based on their COVID-19 viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment.
March 05, 2025
Accommodation Of Religious Objection To Vaccine That Violates Law An Undue Burden

NEW YORK — Ruling that an accommodation to an employee’s religious objection to COVID vaccination and testing that would violate a state law is an undue burden on an employer, a panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment of a New York federal court granting summary judgment in favor of a school district in an employee’s lawsuit alleging that the district violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by refusing her such an accommodation and violated the Genetic Information Discrimination Act (GINA) in asking questions about her family medical history.
March 03, 2025
In Suit Alleging Damaged Credit During COVID, Judge Orders Stay Pending Settlement

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge granted a motion to stay filed by a credit reporting agency pending consummation of a settlement reached by the parties in a lawsuit by a borrower alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by the agency in reporting his car loan as delinquent despite an accommodation the borrower claimed to have obtained from the lender.
March 03, 2025
Federal Judge Approves Temple University’s $6.9M Pandemic Closure Settlement

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania issued a final judgment and order granting approval of a $6.9 million settlement that will be paid by Temple University to a class of students who alleged that the school was unjustly enriched and breached its implied contractual duty when it shut its doors in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioned learning to online.
March 03, 2025
Rehab Centers Appeal PPP Loan Forgiveness Denial Based On Corporate Group Limit

CHICAGO — Three rehabilitation centers filed a joint appeal to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of grants of summary judgment in favor of the Small Business Administration (SBA) by an Illinois federal court that in three separate but related cases ruled that the SBA was statutorily authorized to create eligibility limits for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and thus was entitled to deny PPP loan forgiveness because the centers’ corporate group had borrowed the maximum available to a single group.
February 28, 2025
Insurers Counterclaim In COVID Test Payment Suit, Allege They Were Overcharged $30M

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 answer to the lab’s second amended complaint combined with counterclaims against the lab and a third-party complaint against a health care billing service allegedly owned by the owner of the lab.
February 28, 2025
Spirit Airlines Dismissed From Lawsuit By Flyer Who Could Not Mask During Pandemic

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky federal judge dismissed with prejudice claims against an airline that had filed for bankruptcy pursuant to the motion of an airline passenger who sued several airlines for being required to wear a mask to fly as required by the federal transportation mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
February 28, 2025
Illinois Judge Dismisses Bulk Of Pilot’s Claims Against Union Over Vaccine Mandate

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois dismissed most of the claims a United Airlines pilot filed against his union alleging religious discrimination, retaliation and breach of the duty of fair representation in relation to the union’s representation regarding the airline’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement but allowed the pilot to continue pursuing a claim alleging disparate treatment between those who received religious and medical exemptions from the mandate.
February 28, 2025
3rd Circuit Panel Upholds Dismissal Of Vaccine Refusal Case For Discovery Defiance

PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed the dismissal with prejudice — as a sanction for refusing to cooperate with discovery requests and comply with discovery orders — by a Pennsylvania federal court of a former employee’s lawsuit alleging that her employer failed to accommodate her religious objection to being vaccinated for COVID-19 in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
February 27, 2025
High Court Distributes Nursing Home Operators’ Challenge To COVID Deaths Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 26 distributed for conference a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a California nursing home operator and affiliated defendants challenging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of the remand to state court of a case against them for the deaths of 15 elderly residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the federal PREP Act preempts state law claims against them and requires removal.
February 26, 2025
Judge Dismisses Hospital’s $2.5M D&O Coverage Suit Over DOJ, AG Investigations

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois granted an insurer’s motion to dismiss a hospital insured’s breach of contract lawsuit, finding that the insurer’s liability is capped by the Regulatory Claim Endorsement’s $1 million sublimit and that the hospital failed to allege that the insurer breached its duty to pay for its $2.5 million in remaining defense expenses arising from underlying criminal federal and state investigations into the hospital’s employees and officers.
February 25, 2025
Florida Panel Affirms Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

MIAMI — A Florida appeals panel on Feb. 19 affirmed a lower court’s judgment in favor of an insurer in an insured’s declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking coverage for its business interruption losses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, concluding that nothing in the record supports the insured’s contention that the governmental shutdown orders “were issued ‘due to’ specific conditions at the premises of the Insured.”
February 25, 2025
Credit Agency Again Signals Settlement Despite Debtor’s Motion To Dismiss, Remand

RALEIGH, N.C. — A credit reporting agency on Feb. 24 filed a second notice of settlement in a North Carolina federal court stating that it and a borrower had executed a settlement agreement on Feb. 20 in the borrower’s lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and requesting that the court vacate the Feb. 25 deadline to respond to the borrower’s motion to dismiss and remand to state court pending an expected stipulation of dismissal.
February 24, 2025
Insurers Ask Supreme Court To Decide Whether Tribal Court Can Exercise Jurisdiction

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied insurers’ petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc asking it to reconsider its opinion that affirmed a federal court’s finding that a tribal court has subject matter jurisdiction over a COVID-19 coverage suit involving tribal properties on tribal land, the insurers filed a petition for writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to determine “whether a tribal court can exercise jurisdiction over nonmembers of the tribe based on off-reservation conduct.”
February 24, 2025
Supreme Court Denies Review Of Lifetime Ban On Sale Of Personal Protective Products

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 24 denied the petition for writ of certiorari of health and beauty product retailers seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision affirming a California federal district court’s grant of the Federal Trade Commission’s motion for summary judgment and order permanently enjoining the retailers from selling personally protective goods and services because of the retailers’ shipping and refund practices in the face of severe product shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic.
February 24, 2025
Medical Transport Worker Seeking Wages For COVID Screening Survives Dismissal

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge denied in part and granted in part a motion to dismiss by a university medical center in a lawsuit brought by a former patient transport employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage laws seeking compensation for time spent being screened and tested for COVID-19 before her shift and for a week she went unpaid because of an interruption in a payroll system.
February 21, 2025
Rehab Company Seeks Refund Of Employee Retention Credits For COVID-19 Downturn

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Chicago area business filed suit against the federal government seeking income tax refunds totaling more than $500,000 for the tax years 2020 and 2021 representing employee retention credits (ERC) provided for as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to encourage employers to keep employees on their payrolls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
February 21, 2025
2nd Circuit Upholds Pension Ruling For NBA Ref Terminated Over Vaccine Requirement

NEW YORK — Issuing a Feb. 20 summary order in favor of a former NBA Services Corp. (NSC) referee who was terminated for not being vaccinated against COVID-19, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that the termination meant he qualified for a pension payment of nearly $3 million even though he has a separate pending discrimination lawsuit over the termination.
February 21, 2025
Carnegie Mellon’s $4.8M Pandemic Closure Settlement Preliminarily Approved

PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania granted preliminary approval of a $4.8 million settlement between Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and students who accuse the school of depriving them of the education and services for which they paid when it halted in-person learning in spring 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
February 21, 2025
Judge: Accommodating Workers’ Religious Objections To Vaccination An Undue Burden

EUGENE, Ore. — An Oregon federal judge granted the motion for summary judgment of a dental practice and its president in a lawsuit by former employees who were terminated for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination and alleged that the defendants failed to accommodate their religious beliefs in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and state law.
February 20, 2025
Washington City Employees Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination Appeal Dismissal

SEATTLE — Several former city employees who were terminated after they refused to become vaccinated for COVID-19 filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of a decision of a Washington federal court, which granted the city and mayor’s motion to dismiss, having concluded that the employees were unable to establish that they experienced a violation of any fundamental rights that would create a cause of action against the city (Michael Brock, et al. v Bellingham, et al., No. 24-850, W.D. Wash.).
February 19, 2025
COVID-19 Treatment Patent Application Doesn’t Show Utility, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 18 said the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it upheld an examiner’s rejection of multiple claims of a patent application for a treatment for the viral infection that causes COVID-19, but the panel partly disagreed with the PTAB and the examiner’s reasoning.
February 19, 2025
Penn State’s $17 Million Pandemic Closure Class Settlement Given Final OK

PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Feb. 18 granted final approval of a $17 million class settlement between The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) and students who accused the school of charging money for in-person education and on-campus access and services but failing to deliver them in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
February 19, 2025
Federal Judge Excludes Expert In Vaccine Mandate Case, Grants Summary Judgment

PHILADELPHIA — An expert retained by a group of former employees at a school who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine cannot testify because the “misconstruction of the exhibits cited in his report undermine his reliability as it pertains to vaccine efficacy,” a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled, also granting summary judgment to the school.