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Mealey's Coronavirus

  • August 14, 2025

    Law Student Blaming COVID Data Fraud For Disenrollment Loses Appeal In 1st Circuit

    BOSTON — Finding that a former law student who alleged that his disenrollment from law school resulted from his refusal to be vaccinated pursuant to a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy that was implemented based on allegedly fraudulent COVID-19 data submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by officials of Massachusetts and other states had “failed to identify any infirmity in the district court’s standing reasoning,” a panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a per curiam judgment affirmed a Massachusetts federal court ruling dismissing the case for lack of standing.

  • August 14, 2025

    9th Circuit En Banc Majority Affirms Order Backing School District Vaccine Policy

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals en banc majority ruled that a Los Angeles school district’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate policy was subject to review and survives under scrutiny because the district “could have reasonably concluded that COVID-19 vaccines would protect the health and safety of its employees and students” in affirming the trial court’s order granting the district’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.

  • August 12, 2025

    Shutdown Orders Caused Insured’s Losses, Not Pandemic, Minnesota Panel Says, Reverses

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota appeals panel on Aug. 11 reversed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of a commercial property insurer in an insured’s coverage dispute arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, ruling that the governmental orders that shut down 150 of the insured’s health and fitness clubs in response to the pandemic are the causes of the insured’s losses for purposes of determining the number of occurrences subject to the policy’s “Interruption By Communicable Disease” coverage limit.

  • August 12, 2025

    Lab’s Motion To Reconsider Partial Dismissal Of COVID Test Repayment Claims Denied

    NEWARK, N.J. — In a lawsuit seeking reimbursement from health insurers for COVID-19 testing, a New Jersey judge on Aug. 11 denied a medical testing laboratory’s motion for reconsideration of her order dismissing claims based on retroactive assignments of rights by beneficiaries of plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and breach of implied contract claims.

  • August 12, 2025

    Employees Amend Complaint Alleging Vaccine Mandate Violated Constitutional Rights

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — After a Connecticut federal judge granted a university health system’s motion to dismiss, finding that former employees alleging violations of their constitutional rights to “bodily autonomy, medical privacy and equal protection” caused by the health system’s mandatory COVID-19 policy and seeking damages under Section 1983 of Title 42 of the U.S. Code had failed to demonstrate that the health system was a state actor, the employees filed a second amended complaint.

  • August 07, 2025

    5th Circuit Affirms SBA PPP Loan Forgiveness Denial Based On Initial Ineligibility

    NEW ORLEANS — Finding that “[n]either text nor common sense” justifies Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness sought by a Texas truck dealer, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 6 affirmed the judgment of a Texas federal court upholding the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) determination that the dealer was not initially eligible for the PPP loan it received and thus ineligible for loan forgiveness.

  • August 07, 2025

    COVID-Era Iowa School Board Meeting Free Speech Case Reportedly Settles

    CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Pursuant to a joint notice of settlement filed by the parties, an Iowa federal judge on Aug. 6 suspended pending deadlines and closed for statistical purposes a case brought by a school parent alleging that a school board and several school district staff members deprived him of his First Amendment rights in banning him from attending school board meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, directing the parties to file closing documents for dismissal or a written status report within 30 days.

  • August 06, 2025

    4th Circuit Panel Upholds SBA Denial Of CARES Act Relief For 6-Time Modified Loan

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the judgment of a Virginia federal court, which granted the summary judgment motion of the Small Business Administration (SBA) in a lawsuit alleging that the agency’s denial of COVID-19-related relief payments for an SBA loan violated the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, was arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and was a violation of due process.

  • August 05, 2025

    Delta To Pay $8.1M For Executive Overpayments With COVID Assistance Funds

    ATLANTA — Pursuant to a joint stipulation, a Georgia federal judge dismissed a qui tam action alleging that an airline had falsely certified compliance with provisions of the Payroll Support Program, which provided financial support to the nation’s airlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the parties reached a settlement under which the airline was to pay to the government $8.1 million.

  • August 01, 2025

    6th Circuit Affirms Attorney Sanctions, Award Of Fees For Frivolous COVID-19 Suit

    CINCINNATI — Agreeing with an Ohio federal judge that, among other failings by attorneys representing dance studios challenging the constitutionality of Ohio’s COVID-19 pandemic shutdown orders, a complaint filed by the attorneys was “haphazard” and “littered with factual and legal errors,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the judge’s order sanctioning the attorneys and directing them to pay attorney fees and costs to county health officials.

  • July 31, 2025

    HHS’s Appeal Of Block On Ending COVID-Related Grants Voluntarily Dismissed

    BOSTON — Pursuant to a motion by the federal government, the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the government’s appeal seeking review of a Rhode Island federal district court grant of a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from implementing or enforcing a March 24 decision that terminated $11 billion in federal financial assistance used by states for public health emergency preparedness and other public health purposes as no longer necessary because the COVID-19 pandemic had ended.

  • July 31, 2025

    Federal Judge Upholds LTD Benefits Termination Under Residency Provision

    SEATTLE — Addressing cross-motions for judgment on the record on de novo review of a long-term disability (LDT) benefits dispute, a Washington federal judge upheld termination of benefits under an international residency provision despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic hit during the time at issue.

  • July 31, 2025

    University Of Pittsburgh’s $7.85M Pandemic Closure Class Settlement Approved

    PITTSBURGH — The University of Pittsburgh’s $7,850,000 class settlement to end a case by students who sued over the school’s failure to refund tuition and housing, dining and student fees paid for the spring 2020 semester when classes were moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic was granted final approval by a federal judge in Pennsylvania.

  • July 31, 2025

    Prima Facie Discrimination Case Not Established In COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Suit

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Finding that a former employee had failed to establish a prima facie case of failure to accommodate her religious beliefs or of racial discrimination, a North Carolina federal judge granted the summary judgment motion of her employer in the employee’s lawsuit stemming from her termination for declining to become vaccinated for COVID-19.

  • July 30, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Master Complaint Against Insurer In Coronavirus Coverage MDL

    CHICAGO — The federal judge in Illinois who is overseeing a multidistrict litigation by hospitality industry insureds who sought business interruption protection coverage for their losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic on July 30 granted an insurer’s renewed motion to dismiss a master complaint, finding that decisions in other cases interpreting similar and mostly identical coverage provisions “almost uniformly held that there must be some physical effect or alteration to the insured property, not just a loss of its use.”

  • July 28, 2025

    Judge: Too Late To Add Punitive Damages Claim In School Meeting Speech Case

    CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — In a case brought by a school parent alleging that a school board and several school district staff members deprived him of his First Amendment rights in banning him from attending school board meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, an Iowa federal magistrate judge on July 25 denied the parent’s motion to amend his complaint to add a claim for punitive damages, determining that the parent had not been diligent in seeking leave to amend upon discovery of the evidence cited for the new claim.

  • July 23, 2025

    Workers’ Religious Exemption Vaccine Claims Don’t Survive 6th Circuit A 2nd Time

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that in 2024 reversed the dismissal of two of 46 hospital workers’ religious discrimination claims over exemption from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate ruled in subsequent appeals that the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the hospital against one of the workers and dismissal of the other’s claims with prejudice were the proper decisions.

  • July 18, 2025

    Labor Union Asks Judge To Reconsider Injunction Blocking COVID Grant Termination

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — After a District of Columbia federal judge limited the grant of a preliminary injunction to a group of municipalities and denied it as to a labor union in a 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, the labor union moved for partial reconsideration.

  • July 18, 2025

    5th Circuit Upholds SBA PPP Loan Forgiveness Ruling As To Independent Contractors

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the judgment of a Louisiana federal court, which granted summary judgment in favor of the Small Business Administration (SBA) in a case challenging the SBA’s refusal to forgive a portion of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan amount that had been based on money the loan recipient paid to its independent contractors the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • July 16, 2025

    Dismissal Of School COVID Masking Policy Retaliation Case Appealed To 10th Circuit

    CHEYENNE, Wyo. — School parents and a student alleging several constitutional violations by a school board and individual school board members in connection with the school’s implementation of a masking policy during the COVID-19 pandemic filed a notice of appeal to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of the ruling of a Wyoming federal judge dismissing the case.

  • July 16, 2025

    HHS Appeals District Court Block On Ending COVID-Related Grants To 1st Circuit

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The United States filed a notice of appeal to the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 15 for the review of a Rhode Island federal district court grant of a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from implementing or enforcing a March 24 decision that terminated $11 billion in federal financial assistance used by states for public health emergency preparedness and other public health purposes as no longer necessary because the COVID-19 pandemic had ended.

  • July 16, 2025

    9th Circuit Denies Rehearing In COVID-19 Pandemic Alaska Subsistence Hunt Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc filed by the state of Alaska after a panel of the court affirmed a federal district court ruling that the Federal Subsistence Board had the authority to allow an emergency subsistence hunt by a tribal village on federal public lands in Alaska when the COVID-19 pandemic had significantly degraded the village’s food supply chains.

  • July 15, 2025

    Insured Appeals Denial Of Motion For Relief From Judgment In Coronavirus Suit

    ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. —A hotel and restaurant owner insurer notified a North Carolina federal court that it is asking the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal to review the court’s recent denial of its motion for relief from a 2021 judgment dismissing its breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

  • July 15, 2025

    9th Circuit Revives Breach Claim In Disability Row Involving COVID Risk

    SAN FRANCISCO — In an unpublished July 14 memorandum disposition, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals revived a breach of contract claim, but not a bad faith claim, in a suit an oral surgeon filed after unsuccessfully seeking disability benefits on the grounds that his comorbid conditions and inability to access recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) made it necessary to close his practice early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • July 15, 2025

    Confidential Class Settlement In COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Suit Preliminarily OK’d

    KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge in Tennessee granted preliminary approval of a confidential class settlement between BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Inc. (BCBST) and workers who were fired for their religious convictions after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.