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

Mealey's Coronavirus

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.
August 13, 2024
Ex-Employee’s COVID-Related Discrimination Suit Tossed For Not Filing EEOC Claim

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge granted the dismissal motion of a hospital in a former employee’s lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and other violations in terminating her after she accepted a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccination but then refused to wear an N95 mask as required by hospital policy, ruling that the employee failed to exhaust her administrative remedies and filed her lawsuit too late.
August 13, 2024
In COVID-19 Vaccine Case, Federal Judge Says Patent Preambles Must Be Considered

WILMINGTON, Del. — The term “vaccine” within the preamble of a patent that was allegedly infringed upon by the manufacturing of various COVID-19 vaccines is a limitation of the patent’s claims because the term describes the intended use of the patent itself, a Delaware federal judge found in issuing a claim construction order interpreting the patent at issue.
August 12, 2024
Insureds Drop Appeal In Coronavirus Coverage Suit In California

LOS ANGELES — One day after the insureds filed a request to dismiss their appeal of a Los Angeles County Superior Court’s judgment on a jury’s special verdict in favor of a commercial property insurer in a breach of contract coverage lawsuit arising from the coronavirus pandemic, Presiding Justice Gonzalo C. Martinez on Aug. 9 signed the order dismissing the appeal.
August 09, 2024
Michigan Supreme Court Declines Review Of Case Involving COVID-Era Tolling Order

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court denied a hospital patient’s application for leave to appeal a decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals, which ruled that the Supreme Court’s administrative order issued during the COVID-19 pandemic removing from the computation of filing deadlines the days spanning Michigan’s state of emergency did not apply to the statutory period required to elapse before a medical malpractice lawsuit could be filed and, thus, the patient’s lawsuit against a hospital and physicians was time-barred.
August 09, 2024
Judge: Facts As To Credit Reporting On Borrowers Whose Credit Score Sank For Jury

SANTA ANA, Calif. — In an action brought by mortgage borrowers alleging that their mortgage lender violated state and federal credit reporting and credit collection statutes stemming from their difficulties during COVID-19, a California federal judge granted the lender’s summary judgment motion with regard to one violation of the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRAA), finding that the lender was entitled to report the borrower’s loan as past due after they entered into a repayment plan, but denied the motion as to another alleged violation of the CCRAA as well as to alleged violations of the Rosenthal Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
August 09, 2024
California High Court Reverses Ruling In Insured’s Favor In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court on Aug. 8 reversed an appeals court’s ruling in favor of a San Francisco restaurant owner insured in a coverage dispute arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the lower court erred by declining to enforce the specified cause of loss limitation under the policy’s “Limited Fungi, Bacteria or Virus Coverage” endorsement.
August 09, 2024
PPP Borrower’s Suit Dismissed After Borrower Fails To Take Steps To Reinstate Case

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge’s order dismissing a lawsuit brought by a transportation services company alleging breach of contract, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent misrepresentation and promissory estoppel against a bank that determined that only $53,017 of a $1.5 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan was eligible for forgiveness automatically converted to dismissal with prejudice after the company failed to move to reinstate the case by July 31.
August 08, 2024
Wash. High Court Answers Certified Questions On Amazon Pandemic Price Increases

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Price gouging may be an unfair act under Washington’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA), but a 15% price increase during a declared emergency is not automatically prohibited, the Washington Supreme Court majority ruled Aug. 8, answering reformulated questions certified by a Washington federal court in a putative class suit over Amazon.com Inc.’s price increases during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
August 08, 2024
Seller Owing $14.6M In Refunds From COVID-Era PPE Sales Seeks Rehearing En Banc

ST. LOUIS — After a divided panel of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a Missouri federal court’s order permanently enjoining a personal protective equipment (PPE) retailer from any further sales of PPE and ordering the retailer to turn over $14,651,185.42 to the Federal Trade Commission to be used as equitable relief for failing to fulfill orders within the retailer’s advertised timeframe during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the retailer on Aug. 7 petitioned the Eighth Circuit for rehearing en banc.
August 07, 2024
Panel Affirms Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In Bad Faith Suit Prompted By Pandemic

NEW ORLEANS — Bound by its ruling in Baylor Scott & White Holdings v. Factory Mut. Ins. Co., the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 6 affirmed a federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insured in its breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
August 06, 2024
3rd Circuit: EEOC Email, Portal Upload Didn’t Start 90-Day Filing Period

PHILADELPHIA — An email from an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigator to an employee’s attorney regarding a forthcoming right-to-sue letter as well as the posting of the letter on the EEOC’s online portal did not start the 90-day clock for filing a complaint, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, vacating a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the employer on the subsequent harassment and retaliation complaint.
August 01, 2024
COVID-Era Michigan Supreme Court Order Was Authorized, Saves Slip-And-Fall Case

LANSING, Mich. — A split Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that it acted constitutionally in issuing an administrative order dictating how limitations periods for commencing litigation were to be computed during the state of emergency declared during the COVID-19 pandemic, affirming a ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals and allowing a woman injured in a slip-and-fall incident to proceed with her lawsuit against an apartment property owner/manager.
July 31, 2024
Jury Returns $22.1M Verdict For Former Wells Fargo Manager In Disability Bias Suit

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A federal jury in North Carolina returned a $22.1 million verdict for a former Wells Fargo Securities LLC manager who was selected for layoff after his request to continue working from home when coronavirus pandemic-related working restrictions were lifted was denied.
July 30, 2024
Health System Seeks Rehearing Of Dismissal Of $192M Coronavirus Coverage Dispute

NEW ORLEANS — Texas’ largest nonprofit health system filed a petition seeking rehearing en banc of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ 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.