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Santa Clara University Wins Affirmance of Complete Dismissal of Vaccine Policy Challenge
- Client News
- August 27, 2024
Paul, Weiss won an appellate victory in California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal on behalf of Santa Clara University when the court affirmed the total dismissal of a 16-count complaint brought by two students and an anti-vaccine organization to challenge the university’s COVID-19 vaccine policy.
The plaintiffs asserted claims under the federal and state constitutions, California anti-discrimination laws, contract law and tort law, seeking injunctive relief against the policy and damages. Paul, Weiss secured the dismissal of this complaint with prejudice in Santa Clara County Superior Court in September 2022. The plaintiffs appealed, arguing primarily that the trial court had failed to credit their allegations about the purported danger of vaccines and that it had applied the incorrect law to their novel claims.
On appeal, we argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing to seek injunctive relief because the individual plaintiffs had long ago been granted exemptions to the policy and the organizational plaintiff had failed to identify any member who would have standing. The court agreed and affirmed dismissal of the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims for lack of standing. The court also agreed with our arguments that the plaintiffs had failed to adequately plead any of their claims for damages, including because their breach of contract claims alleged no theory of breach and because the challenged conduct of implementing a vaccine policy in accordance with public health guidelines could be neither negligent nor extreme and outrageous as a matter of law.
The Paul, Weiss team for the appeal included litigation partners Randy Luskey, Liza Velazquez and Gregory Laufer.