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

Mealey's Coronavirus

March 14, 2025
COVID Test Payment Suit Properly Tossed For Not Seeking Administrative Remedies

NEW YORK — A panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment of a New York federal court, which dismissed a lawsuit by a medical practice seeking reimbursement for COVID-19 testing for the members of a health care workers’ union because the practice failed to establish that it had exhausted its administrative remedies in attempting to obtain payment.
March 13, 2025
School Says Parent’s Threatening Board Meeting Behavior Not Protected Speech

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — In a lawsuit by a school parent alleging that a school district deprived him of his First Amendment rights in banning 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, the school district on March 12 moved for summary judgment, arguing that the parent’s behavior was not constitutionally protected and that the school officials were entitled to qualified immunity.
March 13, 2025
FTC, Nasal Spray Maker Stipulate To Dismissal In COVID Prevention Claims Case

SALT LAKE CITY — The Federal Trade Commission and a company that claims to make a nasal spray that provides protection against and treatment for COVID-19 filed a joint stipulation of dismissal with prejudice that states that each party is responsible for its own costs and that no party is responsible to any other party for fines, cost or penalties arising from the case.
March 12, 2025
Discrimination Not Shown In Suit Alleging Improper Denial Of Mortgage Relief

JACKSON, Miss. — Ruling that a homeowner failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination, a Mississippi federal judge on March 11 granted the summary judgment motion of an Illinois mortgage servicer in the homeowner’s lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) after the servicer foreclosed on her home without offering mortgage modifications sought by the homeowner, who had experienced income loss due to her divorce and the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 12, 2025
Split D.C. Circuit Enforces NLRB Ruling In Dispute Over Impasse, Employment Terms

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied an employer’s petition for review of a National Labor Relations Board decision in a case in which the employer alleged that it reached an impasse while trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement and accused the union of engaging in delay tactics both before and during the coronavirus pandemic.
March 11, 2025
Employer Says Employee Did Not Establish Religious Conflict With COVID-19 Vaccine

PORTLAND, Ore. — Contending that a former employee did not establish a conflict between her faith and the COVID-19 vaccine and that accommodating her objection to the vaccine would impose an undue burden on the company, a sportswear company has moved for summary judgment in a lawsuit by the employee, who alleged that the company failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs in terminating her.
March 10, 2025
Federal Judge Enters $24B Judgment Against China For COVID-19 Economic Damage

CAPE GIRDEAU, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge on March 7 entered a default judgment in favor of the state of Missouri in the amount of almost $24.5 billion in the state’s lawsuit against the People’s Republic of China, other Chinese governmental entities, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences alleging that the defendants covered up the existence and danger of COVID-19 and hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE) to the detriment to the citizens of Missouri.
March 07, 2025
Employees Fired For Vaccine Refusal Cannot Sue Employer For Civil Rights Violation

EUGENE, Ore. — Determining that a hospital was not a state actor in terminating employees who refused the COVID-19 vaccine pursuant to the hospital’s state-law-compliant vaccination mandate and that there is no private right of action in the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) Act, an Oregon federal court granted a motion to dismiss of the hospital and its chief executive and chief medical officers in the employees’ lawsuit alleging civil rights violations, statutory violations and state law claims stemming from their termination.
March 07, 2025
Judge: Limitation On Public Comment In City Meeting Does Not Violate Constitution

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Ruling that city officials were entitled to set limits on the types of speech allowed during public comment periods at meetings, a Kansas federal court on March 6 granted the officials’ motion for summary judgment, at the same time denying the partial summary judgment motion of the speaker, who sued the officials and the city alleging civil rights and other violations after he was ejected twice from City Commission meetings.
March 06, 2025
Baylor College Of Medicine Seeks Texas High Court Review Of COVID-19 Coverage Suit

AUSTIN, Texas — Baylor College of Medicine filed a petition in the Texas Supreme Court seeking review of an appeals court’s conclusion that the presence of the COVID-19 virus at its premises did not cause “direct physical loss of or damage to” to its property, challenging the appeals court’s reversal of a lower court’s judgment following a jury verdict in the school’s favor.
March 06, 2025
COVID-19 Countermeasure Causation Standards Are Not Final Agency Action, HHS Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on March 5 moved to dismiss a lawsuit brought by more than 200 individuals whose family members were treated during the COVID-19 pandemic with and allegedly died as a direct result of certain countermeasures such as hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin and alleged that the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was applying an incorrect standard for eligibility and to date had found no one eligible for the Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program (CICP) benefits.
March 05, 2025
Employee Objection To COVID-19 Vaccine Was Medical, Not Religious, Judge Concludes

CHICAGO — Deeming an employee’s objections to the COVID-19 vaccine medical rather than religious, an Illinois federal judge granted her employer’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the employee’s lawsuit alleging that she was denied a religious accommodation for the employer’s mandatory vaccination policy in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
March 05, 2025
Final Approval Of $40M Settlement Granted In Securities Fraud Class Action

BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland granted final approval of a $40 million settlement in a securities fraud class action brought by investors against a COVID-19 vaccine contractor that experienced contamination issues at its Bayview, Md., manufacturing facility and several of its executives.
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.