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Mealey's Coronavirus

  • July 14, 2025

    Colorado Federal Judge Upholds Denial Of Attorney’s COVID-Linked LTD Claim

    DENVER — Ruling against an attorney who unsuccessfully sought long-term disability (LTD) benefits because of fatigue and cognitive issues attributed to long COVID-19, a Colorado federal judge concluded that denial of the claim was not arbitrary and capricious; among other things, the judge said she “cannot conclude that Defendant failed to engage in a meaningful dialogue with Plaintiff.”

  • July 14, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Driver’s Claim For Larger COVID-19 Refunds

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a driver’s class action against her insurer, GEICO, for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by providing drivers an insufficient rebate on premiums after the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the insurer was protected by the “‘safe harbor’” doctrine as the state insurance commissioner approved its rebate amounts.

  • July 11, 2025

    7th Circuit Certifies COVID Screening Compensability Question To State High Court

    CHICAGO — In a lawsuit by former employees alleging that pre-shift COVID-19 screenings were compensable under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL) and other statutes, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel certified to the Illinois Supreme Court the question of whether the IMWL incorporates the federal Portal-to-Portal Act (PPA) amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) so as to exclude certain pre-shift activities from compensable time.

  • July 10, 2025

    Panel Vacates Bank Worker’s Vaccine Exemption Denial, Affirms Discovery Sanctions

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel determined, in partially vacating and remanding a federal judge’s order, “that disputed issues of material fact preclude summary judgment” on one of two New York bank employees’ claims that her religious beliefs exempted her from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine after the employees were terminated for not getting vaccinated to return to work after the pandemic but agreed that the judge was correct in imposing discovery sanctions related to the employees’ lawsuit alleging religious freedom, First Amendment and Title VII violations.

  • July 10, 2025

    Order Vacated, Case Dismissed In LTD Benefits Row Involving COVID Risk

    SAN FRANCISCO — After vacating an August 2024 order and judgment that were in favor of a pediatrician who sought long-term disability (LTD) benefits based on her high risk of exposure to COVID-19, a California federal judge dismissed the case with prejudice pursuant to the parties’ stipulation.

  • July 09, 2025

    Doctors Sue To Restore COVID Vaccine Recommendations For Children, Pregnant Women

    BOSTON — Several physicians’ professional groups and a Jane Doe filed suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and several other federal officials and agencies and a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to set aside the HHS’s removal of the COVID-19 vaccination from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended immunization schedules for healthy children and pregnant women, alleging that the policy is “baseless and uninformed” and creates a “grave and immediate risk of contracting a preventable disease.”

  • July 09, 2025

    Employee Adds Punitive Damages Claim In COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Case

    DENVER — After a panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of a Colorado federal court dismissing an employee’s claim of religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act stemming from the employee’s refusal to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule, the employee filed a third amended complaint, adding a claim for punitive damages.

  • July 08, 2025

    Preshift COVID-19 Screening Compensation Case Stayed Pending 7th Circuit Ruling

    CHICAGO — In a former employee’s purported class action against his employer seeking to recover unpaid wages for mandatory preshift COVID-19 screening under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL), the Illinois Wage and Payment Collection Act (IWPCA) and quantum meruit, which alleged that the time spent screening and awaiting screening was controlled by the employer and necessary to his job and, thus, compensable, an Illinois federal judge on July 7 stayed the case pending the result of a similar case in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • July 08, 2025

    Judge Says LTD Plan Must Take Another Look At Denial After Deadline Snafu

    SEATTLE — Ruling that equitable estoppel bars an untimeliness argument against a long-term disability (LTD) claimant who was given an incorrect administrative appeal deadline, a federal judge in Washington concluded that the correct remedy is remand “to the LTD plan administrator for review based on the full record, including the now-available post-denial medical information and literature involving long COVID.”

  • July 01, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Rule On Whether COVID Eviction Ban Was 5th Amendment Taking

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 denied the petition for writ of certiorari of rental property owners seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel decision affirming a California federal court ruling that a COVID-era eviction moratorium was not an uncompensated taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

  • June 27, 2025

    Nondelegation Doctrine Not Violated By FCC Funding Scheme, Supreme Court Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 ruled 6-3 that a Federal Communications Commission subsidy program does not violate the doctrines of nondelegation or  “private nondelegation,” finding that the FCC’s delegations were properly guided by an “intelligible principle” set forth by Congress and reversing the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • June 26, 2025

    Insurer Was Not Contractually Bound To Provide COVID-19 Premium Relief, Judge Says

    SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on June 25 granted an auto insurer’s motion for summary judgment on a claim alleging that the insurer breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by not sufficiently refunding policyholders a percentage of premium payments made during the COVID-19 pandemic because the insurer was not contractually bound to refund any premiums under its auto policies.

  • June 23, 2025

    Citing Delay, Premiums, 5th Circuit Rules For Life Insurance Beneficiary

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 20 granted judgment for the beneficiary in a life insurance dispute involving a policy that the issuer terminated months after it said it temporarily changed its cancellation practices because of COVID-19; the dispute concerned whether the Employee Retirement Income Security Act applies and whether a small business owner had employees, and the panel concluded that the answer to both questions is yes.

  • June 23, 2025

    Judge Denies Insured’s Motion For Relief From Judgment In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

    ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. —A federal judge in North Carolina denied a hotel and restaurant owner insured’s motion for relief from a March 4, 2021, judgment dismissing its breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit arising from the coronavirus pandemic, rejecting the insured’s argument that the North Carolina Supreme Court’s ruling in N. State Deli, LLC v. Cincinnati Ins. Co. constitutes extraordinary circumstances that warrant relief.

  • June 20, 2025

    Employee Fails To Establish Religious Objection To COVID Testing In Lieu Of Shot

    ST. LOUIS — A panel of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of a South Dakota federal court, which dismissed the lawsuit of a former employee who was terminated for refusing to comply with his employer’s COVID-19 vaccination-or-test policy after determining that a proposed amended complaint failed to establish an adequate factual basis for his claimed religious objection to COVID testing.

  • June 20, 2025

    Mississippi Seeks High Court Review Of Postmarked Ballot Receipt Law Invalidation

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mississippi’s secretary of State filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel decision striking down a COVID-era Mississippi state law providing that mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day may be received by the registrar within five days of Election Day and still be valid.

  • June 19, 2025

    Colorado Panel Partly Reverses Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In COVID-19 Coverage Suit

    DENVER — Noting two matters of first impression, a Colorado appellate court on June 18 reversed in part a lower court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in a retirement communities owner’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic after finding that the insured stated a viable claim to recover some of its alleged losses pursuant to the policy’s health care endorsement.

  • June 19, 2025

    Class Denial Affirmed, 2 Claims Reinstated In No-Coins Suit Against Chipotle

    PHILADELPHIA — A consumer who sued a fast food chain for withholding change in coins due to a coin shortage during the coronavirus pandemic may proceed with his individual breach of contract and Pennsylvania consumer protection law claims only, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, upholding summary judgment for Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. on the remaining claims and upholding denial of class certification.

  • June 18, 2025

    Preliminary Injunction Partly Granted In Suit To Stop Termination Of COVID Grants

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on June 17 granted in part a motion for a  preliminary injunction filed by a group of municipalities and a labor union in their lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its acting director alleging that the mass termination of federal grants that were a response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unlawful.

  • June 18, 2025

    Split 5th Circuit Affirms Award Of Over $12M In FTC Row With Online PPE Supplier

    NEW ORLEANS — A split Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s award of $12,241,035.69 to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for consumer complaints about undelivered and unrefunded personal protective equipment (PPE) in the FTC’s dispute with an online retailer over late and undelivered PPE, finding that the retailer failed to provide any evidence to the contrary regarding the amount of undelivered and unrefunded orders.

  • June 17, 2025

    COVID-19 Testing Lab Seeks Dismissal Of Insurer’s $30M Overpayment Counterclaim

    NEWARK, N.J. — In a lawsuit brought by a medical testing lab seeking reimbursement from health insurers for COVID-19 testing, the lab and its billing company moved to dismiss the insurers’ counterclaims and third-party counterclaims alleging that the lab and billing company caused the insurers to overpay the lab for basic testing services by at least $30 million.

  • June 16, 2025

    Law Firm Seeking COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit Refund Settles With Government

    PHILADELPHIA — The parties having reported that they have reached a settlement, a Pennsylvania federal judge on June 13 dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit by a law firm seeking a tax refund of $790,318.08 for 2020 and 2021 for employee retention tax credits as provided for by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for wage payments it paid to its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • June 13, 2025

    Magistrate Partly Grants Insured’s Motion To Compel In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York granted in part and denied in part a holding company for the U.S. interests in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s motion to compel its “all risk” insurers to produce certain documents they have withheld as privileged in a coronavirus coverage dispute, directing the insurers to produce communications with their reinsurers and produce documents containing reserve information unless there is another viable ground for withholding.

  • June 13, 2025

    Claimant With Long COVID To Challenge LTD Benefit Denial In 9th Circuit

    SAN DIEGO — A claimant who unsuccessfully sought long-term disability (LTD) benefits due to symptoms he attributed to long COVID and cardiac issues is taking his case to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after a California federal judge upheld denial of his claim on de novo review.

  • June 10, 2025

    Washington Panel Reverses, Remands UW’s COVID-19 Coverage Suit For Dismissal

    SEATTLE — A Washington appeals court panel on June 9 reversed a decision and remanded for a lower court to dismiss the University of Washington’s lawsuit seeking coverage for losses incurred at its medical and athletic properties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, relying on the recent ruling in Tulalip Tribes of Washington v. Lexington Insurance Co. to reject the insured’s  argument as to its entitlement to coverage.