496 results for 'cat:"Covid-19"'.
J. Peterson partially grants the department of corrections' (DOC) motion to dismiss the DOC employees' complaint alleging that the DOC wrongfully denied them accommodations and fired them for not complying with a new state requirement for the Covid-19 vaccination. The DOC employees abandoned some of their claims, and their remaining claims fail because they do not make any factual allegations of ongoing violations now that the proclamation has been rescinded and they do not state what specific religious actions the proclamation prohibited.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Peterson, Filed On: May 16, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv6186, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: covid-19, Employment Discrimination, Class Action
J. Castaneda orders both parties to respond to discovery requests in a lawsuit brought against a logistics company by a former employee who asserted that her “religious beliefs precluded her from getting a vaccination or wearing a facemask.” While the company must provide more information on why accommodating this request “would have created an undue hardship,” the former employee must likewise provide more information on her alleged beliefs and cannot use “vague claims of ‘harassment’” to obtain a protective order against discovery.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Castaneda, Filed On: May 15, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv148, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Discovery, covid-19
J. Rose denies the employer's motion for summary judgment, ruling a determination of whether the Christian employee's objection to the Covid-19 vaccine was a sincerely held religious belief requires a credibility assessment that cannot be made at this stage of litigation, while neither party has submitted evidence of whether a reasonable accommodation was available or offered at the time of her termination.
Court: USDC Southern District of Ohio, Judge: Rose, Filed On: May 13, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv370, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Evidence, covid-19, Employment Discrimination
J. Rose denies the employer's motion for summary judgment, ruling a determination of whether the Christian employee's objection to the Covid-19 vaccine was a sincerely held religious belief requires a credibility assessment that cannot be made at this stage of litigation, while neither party has submitted evidence of whether a reasonable accommodation was available or offered at the time of her termination.
Court: USDC Southern District of Ohio, Judge: Rose, Filed On: May 13, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv370, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Evidence, covid-19, Employment Discrimination
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J. Hamilton finds that the lower court properly found for the city on constitutional and defamation claims filed by a business owner who claims the city denied his business an emergency grant because he had gone to an illegal anti-lockdown rally at the Wisconsin State Capitol. The state's Safer at Home Order was a valid restriction on speech and public gatherings due to the government interest in stopping the spread of Covid-19. Further, it was not unreasonable for the city to have denied discretionary funds to a business whose manager had violated the law and contributed to the public health crisis. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Hamilton, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 23-1208, Categories: Defamation, covid-19, First Amendment
J. Brennan grants the federal government's motion to dismiss, ruling the restaurants lack standing to challenge the Small Business Administration's refusal to prosecute fraudulent recipients of Covid-19 relief funds. The relevant legislation does not require such enforcement measures. Additionally, the restaurants' claims have been mooted by the expiration of the grant period, such that even if the court were to grant them relief and require disbursement of grants, the businesses would be required to immediately return the funds to the federal government.
Court: USDC Northern District of Ohio, Judge: Brennan, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv2361, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Government, covid-19
J. Dietz declines to dismiss claims in which servicemen and servicewomen contend they suffered adverse personnel actions due to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate because service members sufficiently pleaded entitlement to backpay since the mandate was unlawful in light of the lack of FDA licensing for the vaccine.
Court: Court of Federal Claims, Judge: Dietz, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 23-211, Categories: covid-19, Military
J. Hernandez dismisses the patient access specialist's First Amendment claim alleging that the university wrongfully placed her on unpaid leave and eventually fired her after rejecting her religious exemption request to receiving the Covid-19 vaccine. The patient access specialist does not prove that the university employees were barred from trying to distinguish between religious and secular objections to a vaccine or from denying exemptions to a state-mandated vaccine mandate.
Court: USDC Oregon, Judge: Hernandez, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv1562, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Immunity, covid-19
J. Bourliot finds that the trial court properly ruled in favor of the individual on claims of breach of a partnership agreement against her former partners relating to a venture to sell personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The former partners' arguments regarding the breach of the partnership agreement claim lack merit. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Bourliot, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 14-21-00558-CV, Categories: Partnerships, covid-19, Contract
J. Tow finds the industrial claims office properly upheld an administrative law judge's ruling to award the estate workers' compensation benefits after the health care facility employee died of complications from Covid-19. The illness constitutes an "occupational disease" under Colorado law. At the time the worker contracted Covid-19, at least 30% of the facility's staff or residents had the illness, compared to just 0.3% of the surrounding community, which satisfied the requirement under the Colorado Workers' Compensation Act that his occupation exposed him to the illness at a "measurably greater degree" than a typical job. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tow, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 2024COA47, Categories: covid-19, Workers' Compensation
J. Peterson grants the U.S. government officials' motion to dismiss the husband and wife's lawsuit asking the court to compel the officials to finish adjudicating a family-based visa petition conditionally approved in 2022 for the wife, who is a citizen of Uganda. Given controlling case law, the husband and wife have not proven their 18-month wait for a consular interview is unreasonable, in part due to evidence in the record of backlogs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Court: USDC Western District of Wisconsin, Judge: Peterson, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv520, NOS: Other Immigration Actions - Immigration, Categories: Administrative Law, Immigration, covid-19
J. Vos finds a lower court properly dismissed a restaurant owner's claims for lost revenues. The restaurant owner argued that he is entitled to monetary relief after his business plummeted during Covid-19. However, the insurer sufficiently showed in court that the policy covered physical damage to the establishment, and not for a depletion of revenues in connection to the pandemic. Affirmed.
Court: Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, Judge: Vos, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: CA-2023-1729, Categories: Insurance, Business Expectancy, covid-19
J. Lasnik dismisses a lawsuit in which the former chief of inventory management for King County Metro Transit accuses the county of not accommodating her religious exemption to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate, placing her on administrative leave and then firing her. The former chief did not give the county timely notice of a religious conflict, because she makes no attempt to explain how a Covid-19 vaccine injection qualifies as a defilement of God's temple while vaccine injections for other illnesses do not, and she acknowledges that neither injections nor vaccines are forbidden in her belief system.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Lasnik, Filed On: April 29, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv823, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, covid-19
J. McDermott finds that an organization was improperly denied an open records request seeking emails sent between the state auditor’s office and two investigative reporters in regard to state Covid-19 policy because the auditor did not produce the emails for 216 days, which constituted an unreasonable delay. Reversed in part.
Court: Iowa Supreme Court, Judge: McDermott, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 23-0201, Categories: Civil Procedure, Public Record, covid-19
J. Copenhaver grants the Board of Education's motion to dismiss the elementary school counselor’s suit claiming the Board violated her right to freedom of speech and the West Virginia Whistleblower Act. The counselor alleged the Board and school officials took retaliatory action against her by, among other things, formally reprimanding her and removing her as the coordinator of the standardized test after she expressed concerns to school officials as well as gave an interview to a Charleston television station about the resumption of a national standardized test to occur on school premises in April 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The court finds since her pleading is grounded in her capacity as a public employee and not a private citizen, she has failed to state a claim on which relief can be granted, and the Board's interest in effectively and efficiently administering the standardized test outweigh the counselor's public airing of her concerns.
Court: USDC Southern District of West Virginia, Judge: Copenhaver, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv314, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Education, covid-19
J. Urias grants the employer's motion to dismiss, ruling the employee's failure to provide evidence any major life activity was limited by an adverse reaction to a previous vaccine prevents him from establishing a disability that would allow his discrimination claims to proceed. Meanwhile, the employee's failure to file administrative remedies for religious discrimination with the EEOC constitutes a failure to exhaust his administrative remedies and requires dismissal of the religious discrimination claims.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv361, NOS: Other Labor Litigation - Labor, Categories: covid-19, Employment Discrimination
J. Blacklock finds that the Pandemic Liability Protection Act can be retroactively applied to the student’s claims stemming from Southern Methodist University moving to online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic. The student has not shown that "he had a reasonable and settled expectation that he could recovery money damages from SMU if the government forcibly shut down the campus and gave the school only the option" of moving to online classes.
Court: Texas Supreme Court, Judge: Blacklock, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 23-0565, Categories: Education, covid-19, Contract
J. Gorton allows a corporation’s motion to dismiss a former employee's claims of violation of his right to due process and equal protection, as well as his civil rights. The corporation allowed employees to be unvaccinated, but required unvaccinated employees to test themselves weekly for Covid-19, and they fired the employee when he refused to follow the testing requirement.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Gorton, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv12206, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Employment, Health Care, covid-19
J. Kahn finds that the district court properly held that a school district did not violate a student's due process rights by denying a medical exemption from the Covid-19 masking mandate because the student's fundamental rights had not been violated, and the mandate was reasonably related to legitimate health and safety concerns. However, the court improperly held that administrative remedies had not beeen exhausted when such was not required to bring disability claims alleging failure to accommodate the student's asthma. Affirmed in part.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Kahn, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23-582-cv, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Education, covid-19
J. Merchant dismisses a Middle Eastern employee’s retaliation claims against a Brooklyn health care provider, finding that filing complaint she made against her supervisor, for forcing her to work near an employee who tested positive for Covid-19, is not protected activity for purposes of a retaliation claim. The court however preserves her discrimination claims, finding she provides enough detail to allege she faced differential treatment because of her national origin.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Merchant, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv3313, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: covid-19, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Gibbons finds the district court improperly denied the "gig" worker's petition for review of his liability for overpayment of pandemic assistance benefits. The appeals referee made no findings demonstrating he considered the nuances of the gig economy or whether a diminution of usual services occurred due to the pandemic. The referee improperly relied on the worker's testimony he had no job offers retracted due to the pandemic to conclude he was an unreliable witness. Reversed.
Court: Nevada Court of Appeals, Judge: Gibbons , Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 85942-COA, Categories: Employment, Evidence, covid-19
J. Miller-Lerman finds the workers compensation court improperly dismissed a nurse liaison's petition. The liaison, while working for the hospital, contracted Covid-19 and sought benefits for “occupational disease” arising in the course of employment. However, a genuine issue of fact remains. The court erroneously reasoned that, given the prevalence of Covid-19 at the time, the infection contracted at hospital facilities was a non-compensable "ordinary disease of life." Reversed.
Court: Nebraska Supreme Court, Judge: Miller-Lerman, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: S-23-022, Categories: Health Care, covid-19, Workers' Compensation
J. Kato finds in favor of the company against the family's complaint that the company's nursing home neglected their loved one to the point that she developed sepsis and contracted Covid-19, resulting in her death. The family did not show diligence when conducting discovery as they did not serve their first set of document requests until seven months after the court issued the scheduling order, among other deficiencies, and the family does not present any record evidence that the company or any of its employees knew that the company's Covid-19 mitigation practices posed a serious risk of death to the loved one.
Court: USDC Central District of California, Judge: Kato, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: 5:21cv1428, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Elder Abuse, Discovery, covid-19