USF urges Florida Supreme Court to hear case regarding pandemic shutdown costs | Tampa Bay News | Tampa

Arguing that the case is of “great public importance,” the University of South Florida on Monday urged the state Supreme Court to hear a dispute over fees collected from students for services that were not provided due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawyers have filed an initial Supreme Court brief after the 2nd District Court of Appeals this year refused to dismiss a potential class action lawsuit alleging the university breached a contract with student ValerieMarie Moore and improperly complied expenses.

Similar lawsuits have been filed against colleges and universities in Florida and across the country after campuses closed in 2020.

Monday’s brief argues that Moore did not identify an “express written contract obliging the petitioner (the university) to provide him with specific on-campus services.”

He also cited a 3rd District Court of Appeals decision that dismissed a similar case involving Miami Dade College.

“This is not the only case resulting from a Florida public university’s alleged failure to provide on-campus services during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it will not be the last,” the attorneys for the law wrote. ‘USF.

“Additionally, the question of whether Florida public colleges are entitled to the protection of sovereign immunity in breach of contract actions is of great public importance because the question has been — and no doubt will continue to be — ‘be – a central issue in many cases brought against Florida’s public colleges and universities. Sovereign immunity prohibits a claim for breach of contract against the petitioner to the extent that there is no express written contract the compelling him to provide the respondent (Moore) with the services to which he claims to be entitled.