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

Mealey's Coronavirus

September 25, 2024
Judge Refuses To Dismiss Breach Of Contract Claim In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York denied “all risk” insurers’ motion to dismiss a breach of contract claim in a lawsuit filed by a holding company for the U.S. interests in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group alleging the “Special Perils Provision” in an endorsement of the policies provided coverage for its $14 million in business interruption/interference losses caused by infectious or contagious diseases that were “manifested by any person within a 5-mile radius of” its four hotels in Boston, New York, Miami and Washington, D.C., finding the insured plausibly alleged that its losses were covered by the endorsement.
September 23, 2024
California High Court Tosses Certified Question Following COVID-19 Coverage Ruling

SAN FRANCISCO — In light of the recent ruling in John's Grill, Inc. v. The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., the California Supreme Court dismissed its consideration of a certified question from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals asking whether an insurance policy’s virus exclusion is unenforceable in a coverage lawsuit brought by owners, operators and managers of two Napa Valley, Calif., restaurants in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
September 23, 2024
Removal Of COVID-19 Suit By Senior Home Was Premature Without Amount In Controversy

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — In a lawsuit filed by the estate of a woman who died in a senior living facility during the COVID-19 pandemic alleging negligence on the part of the facility, a New York federal judge granted the estate’s motion to remand to state court because the amount in controversy was not stated or otherwise determinable, thereby nullifying diversity jurisdiction.
September 23, 2024
Catholic University’s $2M Coronavirus Closure Settlement Preliminarily OK’d

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia granted preliminary approval of a $2 million class settlement reached between a student and The Catholic University of America over claims that the school failed 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.
September 20, 2024
COVID-19 Test Lab Cannot Sue For Payments From Firm It Agreed Not To Bill

CHICAGO — Finding that no reasonable construction of a contract between a testing lab and a skilled nursing facility would impose an obligation on the nursing facility to pay the lab for COVID-19 testing for its employees, an Illinois federal judge granted the nursing facility’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the lab seeking payment of a bill under an agreement that expressly stated that it would seek insurance information from the nursing facility but not bill it for testing.
September 20, 2024
Preliminary Approval Of $40M Settlement Sought In Securities Fraud Class Suit

BALTIMORE — Lead plaintiffs in a securities fraud class suit filed against a COVID-19 vaccine contractor that experienced contamination issues at its Bayview, Md., manufacturing facility and several of its executives seek preliminary approval of a $40 million settlement reached between the parties.
September 19, 2024
Judge Denies Summary Judgment On Issue Of Contamination Exclusion’s Applicability

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge refused to grant summary judgment in favor of an insured on the applicability of a policy’s contamination exclusion to losses sustained by the insured in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic because the evidence could support a jury finding that the insured believed that the contamination exclusion would apply as a bar to coverage for the losses caused by the coronavirus.
September 18, 2024
No Coverage Owed For Footwear Chain’s Coronavirus Losses, Illinois Panel Affirms

CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals court panel on Sept. 17 affirmed a lower court’s grant of a commercial property insurer’s motion to dismiss the owner of retail footwear chain DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the policy’s “law and ordinance” and “contamination” exclusions bar coverage.
September 17, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Insurers’ Petition For Rehearing In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

SEATTLE —The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 16 denied insurers’ petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc asking it to reconsider its Feb. 29 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, but with a dissenting judge saying that “this case cried out for rehearing en banc.”
September 17, 2024
Injunction Not Warranted For Parent Barred From School Grounds During COVID-19

ST. LOUIS — A panel of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of an Iowa federal court, which denied a preliminary injunction to a school parent who sued a school district alleging deprivation of his First Amendment rights in sending him a notice of trespass preventing him from attending school board meetings because of his allegedly disruptive and threatening behavior in protest of the board’s masking and vaccination policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
September 12, 2024
Rehearing Denied After 6th Circuit Reinstates Worker’s Pandemic Bias Claims

CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a one-page order denied a petition for rehearing en banc filed by Lampo Group LLC, the company of radio personality Dave Ramsey, 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.
September 11, 2024
Federal Contractor’s Suit Seeks Refund Of Over $3.5M In Employee Retention Credits

BALTIMORE — A federal contractor has filed a lawsuit against the federal government seeking a tax refund of $3,568,706.52 in employee retention credits (ERC) that were authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for businesses suffering a significant decline in gross receipts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
September 11, 2024
Penn State Agrees To $17M Class Settlement In Students’ Pandemic Closure Case

PITTSBURGH — Students who accuse The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) 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 reached a $17 million class settlement with the school and moved for preliminary approval of the deal in a Pennsylvania federal court.
September 10, 2024
Suit Alleging Damaged Credit Despite COVID Accommodation Survives Motion To Dismiss

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge accepted in full the report and recommendations of a magistrate judge, granting in part and denying in part a motion of a credit reporting agency to dismiss the lawsuit brought by a borrower alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) after he received an accommodation on an auto loan during the COVID-19 pandemic and expected his account to be reported as current.
September 10, 2024
Panel Refuses To Reconsider Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In Suit Prompted By Pandemic

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals refused to reconsider its ruling that affirmed a federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insured in its breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
September 09, 2024
Judge Grants Dismissal In Part In FCA Violation Suit Over COVID-19 Test Billing

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge on Sept. 6 granted in part a motion to dismiss filed by a COVID-19 testing provider in a qui tam suit alleging False Claim Act (FCA) violations and violations of a similar New Jersey state law related to improper billing for COVID-19 tests, granting the motion because the provider is not an original source but denying it because the amended complaint satisfies the pleading standard and because “the claims are not barred by the” FCA limitations and are not unconstitutional.
September 09, 2024
6th Circuit: Elevated Pleading Standard In COVID-19 Vaccine Case Was Erroneous

CINCINNATI — A trial court’s dismissal of a worker’s claim that her employer failed to accommodate her religious beliefs when it came to refusing the COVID-19 vaccine wrongly employed the elevated pleading standing of requiring a prima face case, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, partially reversing the ruling and remanding for further proceedings.
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.