Pandemic Lawsuits Today: Active Cases, Rulings, and Settlements

Years after lockdowns ended, pandemic lawsuits are still moving through American courts, and several of the biggest ones hit decision points in 2025 and 2026. Some have produced settlements that are paying out now. Others have deadlines you need to meet to collect anything. A handful remain pending and could reshape what the federal government, insurers, employers, and care facilities owe people who were affected by COVID-19. Here is where the most consequential cases stand and what each one means if you were caught up in it.

Tax Penalty Refunds After the Kwong Ruling

In November 2025, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims held in Kwong v. United States that a federal disaster-relief provision, IRC § 7508A(d), postponed federal tax filing and payment deadlines for the entire COVID-19 disaster period, from January 20, 2020, through July 10, 2023. Under that reading, returns and payments due inside that window were not legally late, and penalties the IRS assessed on them were improper. The Taxpayer Advocate Service estimates tens of millions of taxpayers could be eligible for refunds of those penalties and the related interest.¹

Relief is not automatic. If you were penalized for a late return or payment during that window, you have to file a paper Form 843 with the IRS. The National Taxpayer Advocate recommends filing by July 10, 2026, to preserve the claim. If you are not sure whether the ruling will survive appeal, you can file a protective claim by writing “Protective Refund Claim Pursuant to Kwong Case” across the top of the form and mailing it by certified mail. There is no electronic filing option.¹

The IRS disagrees with the decision and the government is expected to appeal, though no appeal had been filed as of mid-2026. The law is unsettled, and future rulings could narrow or expand the scope of refunds available.²

SSI Overpayment Waivers Under Campos

A federal court in New York finalized the class action settlement in Campos v. Kijakazi in January 2024. It covers Supplemental Security Income overpayments during the COVID-19 national emergency, from March 2020 through April 2023. The Social Security Administration must automatically waive certain overpayments from March through September 2020, affecting roughly 250,000 recipients. People who already repaid that money are supposed to receive back-credits without doing anything.³

A much larger group, nearly two million people with overpayments across the broader March 2020 to April 2023 period, received individualized notices and must request a waiver themselves. Implementation has been slow. Advocates reported in spring 2025 that letters had finally started going out, and the automatic waivers for the March through September 2020 group were expected to be processed by June 2025. If you received an SSI overpayment notice tied to that period, read the letter carefully and act on it; the broader relief only kicks in if you ask.⁴

Wells Fargo Forbearance Payments

A $185 million class action settlement resolving allegations that Wells Fargo placed mortgage customers into COVID-19 forbearance programs without informed consent became effective in February 2025. A federal court in Ohio granted final approval in December 2024, automatic payments began going out to affected borrowers in March 2025, and supplemental claims submitted by the January 10, 2025, deadline are still being evaluated. Wells Fargo denied any wrongdoing.⁵

University Tuition Refund Settlements

Students who paid for in-person college in spring 2020 and were moved to remote learning have won a series of class action settlements. If you were enrolled at any of these schools, check whether you fall into the class and watch for notice:

University of Southern California: a $10 million settlement received preliminary approval in October 2025, with a final approval hearing set for March 2026.⁶
University of Washington: a $4 million settlement was finally approved in October 2025, with payments to approximately 56,000 class members scheduled for January 2026.⁷
University of San Diego: a $1.4 million settlement for spring 2020 students had a fairness hearing in March 2025, with automatic payments to eligible class members.⁸
Pepperdine University: the case is stayed pending a Ninth Circuit appeal after the district court partially granted interlocutory appeal in October 2025. No ruling on the merits has occurred.⁹

Additional tuition cases remain active against Boston University, Brown University, George Washington University, Vanderbilt University, and other institutions.⁶

Ohio’s $900 Million Unemployment Case

The last surviving lawsuit over a Republican governor’s early withdrawal from pandemic unemployment benefits is State ex rel. Bowling v. DeWine. It represents roughly 300,000 Ohio workers who lost access to the $300-per-week Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program when Governor Mike DeWine ended it ten weeks early in 2021. The workers argue the governor had no authority to pull Ohio out unilaterally. They seek roughly $900 million in federal funds that were never distributed.¹⁰

The Tenth District Court of Appeals ruled that claimants are entitled to the benefits. The Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments on May 20, 2026. The state’s solicitor general called the case “quintessentially moot” because the federal program expired years ago. The plaintiffs’ attorney countered that the funds remain available at the U.S. Department of Labor. No decision has been issued.¹¹ Similar challenges in thirteen other states were dismissed, so Ohio’s result is the only chance claimants in this category have left.¹²

Federal Employee Vaccine Mandate and Hazard Pay

The core litigation over President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers formally ended in January 2025, when the Department of Justice settled with Feds for Freedom. Federal agencies are prohibited from taking adverse action against employees based on vaccination status or mandate-related exemption requests. Vaccine and exemption records must be removed from personnel files unless the employee chooses to keep them. The settlement provided prospective relief but no monetary damages.¹³

A separate class action seeking hazard pay for federal employees exposed to COVID-19 on the job is still pending at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The American Federation of Government Employees and the law firm Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman and Fitch argue exposed workers are entitled to a 25 percent hazard pay differential under existing federal pay rules. The government has moved to stay the case while a related hazard pay suit works through appeals. Participation is open to any federal employee exposed on the job whose position description did not already account for infectious disease exposure, union member or not, and requires opting in through a dedicated site.¹⁴

Nursing Home Wrongful Death Cases

COVID-19 wrongful death lawsuits against nursing homes have mostly favored facilities. Defense attorneys reported through mid-2024 that no plaintiff had won a jury verdict in a COVID-related nursing home death case. Juries in Tennessee and Washington state found facilities not liable for early-pandemic resident deaths even when they also concluded the facility had acted negligently, reasoning that the negligence had not been shown to cause the specific death.¹⁵

That pattern is starting to crack. In January 2026, an Ohio appeals court affirmed a plaintiff’s verdict in McCoy v. Avon Place Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, upholding $1.15 million in wrongful death damages and $500,000 in punitive damages. The court found a nurse had ignored a resident’s cries for help while she struggled to breathe due to an occluded tracheostomy, and that the facility ratified the conduct by failing to discipline her.¹⁶

One procedural fight largely favors plaintiffs. The Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits have all ruled that the federal PREP Act does not broadly preempt state-law negligence and wrongful death claims, confining its protections to a narrow federal cause of action for willful misconduct. State courts, not federal ones, will keep deciding most of these cases.¹⁷

Business Interruption Insurance Claims

If you own a business that lost income during lockdowns and are considering a lawsuit against your insurer, know that these cases have overwhelmingly failed. Data from the University of Pennsylvania’s Covid Coverage Litigation Tracker shows that of nearly 2,400 tracked lawsuits, most ended with motions to dismiss granted in favor of insurers, whether or not the policy had an explicit virus exclusion. Of the few that reached trial, insurers won ten verdicts and policyholders won two.¹⁸

Courts have overwhelmingly concluded that government-ordered closures and the presence of the virus do not amount to “direct physical loss or damage” to property, which most commercial policies require to trigger coverage. Many policies also contained a virus or bacteria exclusion widely adopted by insurers after the 2002 SARS outbreak, which provided an additional basis for denial.¹⁹

Missouri’s $24 Billion Judgment Against China

A federal judge in Missouri entered a default judgment of more than $24 billion against the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, and several Chinese local governments and agencies in March 2025. Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. found China had covered up the start of the pandemic and hoarded protective equipment, causing harm to Missouri residents. China did not participate in the proceedings and has said it does not accept the decision.²⁰

Collecting is another matter. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced in November 2025 that the state had mailed judgment packets and Mandarin translations to the U.S. State Department for diplomatic service under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Missouri says it intends to seize Chinese-owned farmland, real estate, and financial holdings in the state, but must return to federal court once the State Department confirms service. Whether any assets can actually be seized given sovereign immunity complexities remains an open question.²¹

Prison and Jail Conditions

Class action challenges to COVID-19 conditions behind bars produced some of the most tangible outcomes of any pandemic litigation. A 2021 settlement in NC NAACP v. Cooper led to the early release of at least 3,500 people from North Carolina state custody and mandated vaccination protocols, testing, and monitoring systems.²² In Washington, D.C., Banks v. Booth settled in 2022, requiring the D.C. jail to provide timely medical care, maintain social distancing, and ensure non-punitive isolation conditions, though the court declined to appoint an outside monitor or grant early releases.²³

1
Taxpayer Advocate Service. Tens of Millions of Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds
2
Taxpayer Advocate Service. Beyond Penalties and Interest: How Kwong May Affect Missed Tax Refunds
3
Social Security Administration. Campos v. Kijakazi Settlement
4
Empire Justice Center. Campos Class Action Emergency Message and Notices
5
Wells Fargo COVID Forbearance Settlement. In re Wells Fargo COVID Forbearance Settlement Litigation
6
Hagens Berman. University of Southern California Tuition and Fees COVID-19 Refund Litigation
7
University of Washington COVID Litigation. Barry v. University of Washington Settlement
8
USD Tuition Fee Settlement. In re University of San Diego Tuition and Fee COVID Refund Litigation
9
Pepperdine COVID Tuition Lawsuit. In re Pepperdine University COVID-19 Tuition and Fee Litigation
10
Policy Matters Ohio. Ohio Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Unpaid Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation
11
StateNews.org. Ohio Supreme Court to Decide if DeWine Could Close $300 Weekly Pandemic Check Program Early
12
U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. Letter to DOL Regarding Ohio FPUC Lawsuit
13
Boyden Gray. DOJ Settles Boyden Gray’s COVID Vaccine Lawsuit
14
AFGE. AFGE’s Hazard Pay Lawsuit Website Is Now Live
15
McKnights Long-Term Care News. TN Nursing Home Found Not Liable in COVID Death Case, Continuing a Trend
16
Supreme Court of Ohio. McCoy v. Avon Place Skilled Nursing and Rehab. Ctr.
17
Center for Medicare Advocacy. State Courts Will Decide SNF COVID Suits
18
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Covid Coverage Litigation Tracker – Judicial Rulings
19
National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Business Interruption Insurance and COVID-19
20
The New York Times. Missouri Wins $24 Billion Judgment Against China Over COVID
21
KCTV5. Missouri Moves to Seize Chinese Assets in Historic $24 Billion COVID Judgment
22
ACLU of North Carolina. NC NAACP v. Cooper – Rights of Incarcerated People
23
Prison Legal News. Settlement Reached in COVID-19 Class Action Against DC Jail