On 7 July 2022, the Spanish Supreme Court (Sala de lo Contencioso-Administrativo, Sección Cuarta) dismissed the appeal brought by the Social Security Administration (Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social) against one of its civil servants in Salamanca.
On 5 July 2022, the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court held that statements of Delhi’s Chief Minister during a press conference that the National Capital Territory of Delhi shall pay the rent of tenants who are unable to do so owing to poverty when the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end did not constitute a promise so as to fall foul of the principle of promissory estoppel.
By judgment of 13 July 2022, the Seventh Division of the Second Appellate District of the Court of Appeal of California ruled in favor of a policyholder in a COVID-related business interruption case, thus departing from the well-established trend of rejecting policyholders’ claims on the grounds that COVID is incapable of producing direct physical losses.
Two applicants challenged a number of measures, including mandatory vaccination and lockdowns, that Australia and local governments in New South Wales and Victoria, have enacted to avert the spread of COVID-19.
On 18 July 2022, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Asturias has declared the nullity of mandatory screening and diagnostic tests for care homes professionals, people admitted to the care homes, those for outings, and for the isolation of residents.
On 1 December 2017, a company (lessee) and a natural person (lessor) entered into a lease agreement for an office to be used for commercial purposes. As of March 2020, the company decided to suspend the payment of the monthly rent because, due to the spread of the pandemic and subsequent restrictive measures on several economic activities, it could not use the office.
In July 2022, the Economic Affairs Court in Riga sentenced a healthcare employee to a suspended prison term of a year and a half (and a year under probation), and another person to 150 hours of community work for fake COVID-19 vaccination.
On 7 July 2022, the Federal Administrative Court dismissed as unfounded the petitions of two air force officers against the obligation to tolerate the COVID-19 vaccination.
The applicant brought a claim against the employer for unfair dismissal after he was terminated from his employment due to his failure to comply with a policy requirement imposing mandatory vaccination against COVID-19.
On 30 June 2022, the Constitutional Court held that it was unconstitutional not to allow unvaccinated or unrecovered people from going to the hairdresser during their ‘second lockdown’, in application of the so-called ‘2G rule’.
The Prosecutor General of Chile appealed two decisions by the Transparency Council which ordered the Ministry of Health to disclose all the information on the monthly use in Chile of Intensive Care Units and Intermediate Care Units, differentiating between vaccinated patients (with one, two and three doses) and unvaccinated patients, in the period between January and November 2021, as well as information regarding the deaths caused by COVID-19.
Earlier this year, the parent of a minor seized a court in Montevideo with an amparo action, claiming the illegality of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns on children under 13 years of age and requesting the suspension of the treatment.
A sex business operator based in the Kansai region filed a lawsuit seeking access to coronavirus relief grants for business hit by the pandemic according to the relief schemes set up by the government, which excluded sex-related business from their scope.
In response to the need expressed by the population to minimize the time spent in public spaces due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during the spring 2020 election, the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued two documents authorizing municipal clerks and local election officials to establish absentee ballot drop boxes.
On 30 July 2022, the French Constitutional Council dismissed the challenge brought by more than sixty Members of Parliament against certain provisions of Article 3 of the law putting an end to the exceptional regimes created to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July 2020, a number of detainees of the Farmville Detention Center (FDC) in Virginia filed suit against the site’s operator, the Immigration Centers of America, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding an outbreak of the COVID-19 virus at the immigrant detention center in 2020, which saw more than 300 inmates infected with the virus.
The heirs of a deceased man, who died as a result of pneumonia caused by COVID-19, brought an action against the former employer of their father, a company, and its subsidiary, claiming that the latter failed to properly apply health protocols on the workplace, ultimately leading to the spread of the virus and causing the death of their father.
In December 2021, the parents of a second-grade student at Sunrise Valley Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, filed suit against two school officials and a public health official challenging a now-defunct Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) COVID-19 quarantine policy, which they alleged treated vaccinated students more favorably than unvaccinated – but allegedly immune – students.
In April 2020, the Preventive Council of the Tolupan indigenous community in San Francisco de Locomapa filed an amparo action, submitting that, during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, municipal authorities implemented a solidarity program to help the population but that they did so in a discriminatory way, providing food and assistance only to individuals and families politically linked to the local government.
On 14 July 2022, the Constitutional Court rejected claims challenging the constitutionality of a decree of the Brussels-Capital Region’s government of 20 May 2020 temporarily prohibiting residential evictions during the health crisis, until 31 August 2020 (Special Powers Decree no. 2020/023), and the legislative ordinance confirming it (Ordinance of 4 December 2020).
During the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic during fall 2021, the government of Ontario introduced strict measures to avert the spread of the virus, including a mandatory vaccination for persons working in several fields paired with a suspension without pay for those who refused vaccination.
Since March 2020, Wisconsin's local public health officials have issued public health orders aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.
On 15 June 2022, the US District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division, refused to dismiss COVID-19 related litigation filed by a hotel group claiming coverage under the environmental policy it had contracted with its insurer.
On 17 June 2022, the Constitutional Court protected the fundamental rights to the vital minimum, dignity, and social security of a doctor who during the COVID-19 pandemic provided his services in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a Cartagena clinic, without receiving timely payment of his salary and social benefits.
On 23 June 2022, the Constitutional Court dismissed a challenge against the Federal COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination Act, in view of the mandate’s current suspension.
In May 2020, Google co-created the Google-Apple Exposure Notification System (“GAEN”) to assist state and local authorities in their fight against COVID-19. The system consists in apps for mobile devices that conduct COVID-19 ‘contact tracing’.
On 5 July 2022, a six to one majority of the Supreme Court upheld a Court of Appeal judgment dismissing Gemma O'Doherty and John Waters’ challenge over the constitutionality of the Irish government’s restrictive measures to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The parent of a minor seized a court in Uruguay with an amparo action, claiming the illegality of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns on children under 13 years of age and requesting the suspension of the treatment.
In September 2021, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) issued a vaccine mandate requiring all students who were 12 years and older to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for enrollment and continued attendance in school. The mandate had then been suspended between April 2022 and July 2023.
On 26 May 2022, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala held that the state company managing the water for Guatemala City had not infringed the right to health of the city’s population but highlighted the importance of secure water supply during the pandemic (exp. n°4699-2021).
On 29 May 2022, the Constitutional Court decided that candidates affected by COVID-19 should be able to reschedule their public section exams.
With a decision of 15 June 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that COVID-19 does not qualify as a natural disaster under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act’s natural-disaster exception.
While the general trend of both state and federal courts is to dismiss policyholder claims for COVID-19-related business interruption losses (see here), by the decision of 15 June 2022, the Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit, upheld – by a majority – an appeal filed by an insured restaurant which had claimed that the all-risks insurance policy it had purchased from its insurer provided coverage for any loss or damage caused by continuous contamination by COVID-19.
On 27 May 2022, the Court of First Instance n°12 of Barcelona rejected claims to apply the judicial doctrine of the ‘rebus sic stantibus’ clause to a commercial lease, because the claimant had not sufficiently proven that the contractual equilibrium was reliably breached.
This project and its database have been made possible with the financial support from the World Health Organization
