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

Mealey's Coronavirus

October 01, 2025
Amazon Workers Who Sued Over Off-The-Clock Work Fail To Disqualify Counsel

DENVER — Amazon.com Services LLC workers who brought a class complaint in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic alleging that they were wrongly denied pay for off-the-clock work before and after shifts, including long wait times for health screenings due to the pandemic, failed to show that Amazon’s counsel should be disqualified or that Amazon should be sanctioned, a federal judge in Colorado ruled.
September 29, 2025
Texas High Court Denies Review In COVID-19 Contamination Suit

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on Sept. 26 denied an insured’s petition for review of a state appellate court’s ruling that a contamination exclusion bars coverage for the insured’s claim seeking coverage for damages and losses incurred as a result of the coronavirus.
September 29, 2025
9th Circuit Vacates Statutory Penalties Of $765 In ERISA Documents Case

SAN FRANCISCO — Cross-appeals of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act documents case that resulted in statutory penalties of $765 were resolved against a health plan beneficiary, with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals saying in an unpublished memorandum disposition that Netflix Inc. “disclosed all required documents as soon as administratively practicable ahead of the March 1, 2021, disaster order deadline and did not act in bad faith, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
September 29, 2025
Texas High Court Won’t Review Baylor College Of Medicine’s COVID-19 Coverage Suit

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on Sept. 26 denied Baylor College of Medicine’s petition 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” its property, challenging the appeals court’s reversal of a lower court’s judgment following a jury verdict in the school’s favor.
September 26, 2025
Lincoln University Settles Pandemic Tuition, Fees Class Suit For $169,500

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania university will pay $169,500 to end a student’s class suit alleging that the school was unjustly enriched after it failed to issue prorated refunds for tuition and fees after the campus closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
September 25, 2025
$425,000 Religious Bias Award In Vaccine Refusal Case Reduced To $300,000

CHICAGO — Pursuant to federal law governing damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination, an Illinois federal judge reduced to $300,000 a $425,000 jury verdict in favor of a former transit authority employee for his employer’s violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in refusing him a religious exemption from its mandatory vaccination policy.
September 24, 2025
Texas Panel Partly Rules In Favor Of Insurers In Coronavirus Coverage Suit

DALLAS — A Texas appellate panel held that a lower court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of certain commercial property insurers in a breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit arising from the coronavirus pandemic, finding that one of the “follow-form” insurance policies included a coverage-extension endorsement that was not present in the lead policy and the insurer that issued that policy failed to demonstrate that the contamination exclusion superseded the endorsement.
September 23, 2025
COVID-Era SBA Borrower Seeks Rehearing En Banc Of Panel Denial Of CARES Act Relief

RICHMOND, Va. — A small business loan recipient petitioned the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for rehearing en banc of a panel decision affirming 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.
September 23, 2025
United States Supports Expanded Federal Officer Removal In Oil Company Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States told the U.S. Supreme Court that 2011 amendments broadened the federal officer removal statute, which now encompasses tasks even related to those directed by the government.
September 19, 2025
Injunction Of Physician COVID-19 Misinformation Law Precluded By Younger Doctrine

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the judgment of a Washington federal court, which granted Washington state officials’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit by physicians alleging constitutional violations in initiating disciplinary proceedings against them for the publication of allegedly false views on COVID-19.
September 18, 2025
Panel Finds No Constitutional Violation By School Board Against COVID Policy Critic

CINCINNATI — Determining that school board members were either not authorized to speak for the school board or that a communication to the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding a parent’s criticism of the school district’s COVID-19 policy did not constitute an adverse action violating free speech rights, a panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of the school district and its board members by a Michigan federal court.
September 18, 2025
Case By Prisoners Alleging Prison Mismanagement Of COVID-19 Settles

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Having been informed that the parties settled the case, a Michigan federal court dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit by prisoners alleging civil rights violations by prison officials stemming from their management of the prison in response to COVID-19.
September 18, 2025
Arizona High Court Strikes Down Limited Immunity For COVID-19 Treatment Providers

PHOENIX — A divided Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of a state appellate court, which held that a state statute enacted to grant medical providers immunity for ordinary negligence in treating patients with COVID-19 was unconstitutional as violative of Arizona’s anti-abrogation clause.
September 17, 2025
Appeal Of $100M Jury Award For COVID Glove Contract Breach Voluntarily Dismissed

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed Walmart Inc.’s appeal of an Arkansas federal jury award of more than $100 million to a nitrile glove supplier for Walmart’s broken promise to purchase millions of boxes of gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic and the supplier’s cross-appeal after the parties stipulated to the dismissal.
September 16, 2025
PPP Loan Recipient Suing SBA For Loan Forgiveness Final Determination Drops Suit

FORT WORTH, Texas — In a lawsuit by a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan recipient alleging wrongdoing on the part of the lender in arranging the loan and partly denying loan forgiveness and seeking a final determination on forgiveness from the Small Business Administration (SBA), the parties on Sept. 15 stipulated to the dismissal of the lawsuit without prejudice after a Texas federal judge denied a further stay of the case.
September 11, 2025
COVID Glove Supplier Awarded $100M For Contract Breach Dismisses Cross-Appeal

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A nitrile glove supplier filed a stipulation of dismissal of its cross-appeal of an Arkansas federal court judgment that, in addition to denying Walmart Inc.’s motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial after a jury awarded the supplier more than $100 million for a broken promise to purchase millions of boxes of gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic, let stand a $350,000 jury verdict against the supplier for tortious interference with an employment relationship and denied certain fees and costs.
September 10, 2025
Employee Awarded $425,000 For Vaccine Refusal Firing Seeks Front, Back Pay

CHICAGO — After an Illinois federal jury awarded him $425,000 for violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act stemming from his termination for refusing to become vaccinated against COVID-19 after being denied a religious exemption, a former transit authority employee filed a post-trial brief in support of his request that he be awarded front and back pay.
September 10, 2025
Judge: Integration Brought Owners-Only LTD Policy Under ERISA

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Dismissing bad faith and breach of contract claims that a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) equity owner who unsuccessfully sought long-term disability (LTD) benefits because of symptoms he attributed to long COVID asserted under California law, a California federal judge concluded that when “an employer integrates a pre-existing” policy that is not governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “into a broader ERISA-governed plan, the non-ERISA policy becomes a part of the ERISA plan and is subject to the requirements and preemptive effect of ERISA.”
September 10, 2025
Insurer Faulted For Terminating LTD Benefits In Case Involving Fatigue, COVID

TRENTON, N.J. — Citing “procedural irregularities and substantive errors” in an insurer’s handling of a long-term disability (LTD) claim for an individual whose diagnoses include myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and long COVID, a New Jersey federal judge issued an unpublished opinion directing that the claimant receive about seven months of retroactive benefits and that her claim be remanded for a determination as to whether she remained eligible after her administrative appeal was denied.
September 09, 2025
Challenge To Tobacco, Vaccination Surcharges Partly Survives Dismissal

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Continuing a string of at least partial victories for plaintiffs in putative class cases over health plan tobacco surcharges, a North Carolina federal judge ruled that two of three claims against GardaWorld Cash Service Inc. survive dismissal; one of the surviving claims concerns the tobacco surcharge, and the other concerns a surcharge levied against those who didn’t show that they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by a certain date.
September 08, 2025
CFPB Says Tolling Agreement Renders Claims Against Credit Reporting Agency Timely

SANTA ANA, Calif. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed its second amended complaint in a California federal court, explaining that a tolling agreement’s naming of a credit reporting agency’s parent company rather than the agency was inadvertent and a mutual mistake and contending that the effect of the agreement was that its claims against the agency for its conduct in dealing with consumer disputes of credit report information were not barred by the statute of limitations.
September 05, 2025
Contractor’s Bid For COVID- Era Employment Credits Amended To Reflect Payments

BALTIMORE — After a federal contractor received some $2.76 million of the tax refund of $3,568,706.52 in employee retention credits (ERC) it had originally sued for under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act as a business suffering a significant decline in gross receipts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the contractor amended its complaint to reflect the payments, seek interest at the noncorporate rate and protect its interests with respect to the third party that prepared its taxes.
September 04, 2025
Judge: No Coverage Owed For Disparagement Suit Brought By Maker Of COVID-19 Test

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania granted a commercial umbrella insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in an insured’s lawsuit seeking personal and advertising injury coverage for an underlying disparagement lawsuit alleging that it sent 19,000 letters to Chester County residents asserting that the COVID-19 test kits they used were unreliable, finding that the underlying complaint does not state a claim for negligent trade libel and the insurer has met its burden in establishing that the professional services and knowing publication exclusions bar coverage.
September 04, 2025
Government Says No Standing Exists To Sue To Restore COVID Vaccine Recommendations

BOSTON — Stating that the plaintiffs’ alleged harms were too speculative to confer standing, the federal government on Sept. 3 moved to dismiss a lawsuit by several physicians’ professional groups and 3 Jane Does against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and several other federal officials and agencies seeking to set aside the HHS’s removal of the COVID-19 vaccination from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended immunization schedules for healthy children and pregnant women.
September 04, 2025
Judge: Immunocompromised Doctor Deserves LTD Benefits Due To COVID-19 Risk

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Following a bench trial on the administrative record regarding a clinical anesthesiologist with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) whose unsuccessful disability claim was based on his risk of exposure to COVID-19, a North Carolina federal judge concluded on de novo review that the anesthesiologist is entitled to retroactive long-term disability (LTD) benefits, prejudgment interest and the costs of the suit.