The University of South Florida (USF) is calling on the Florida Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court opinion that gave the go-ahead to a class-action lawsuit seeking refunds for campus service fees charged students during the coronavirus pandemic.
Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal in late September declined to dismiss the lawsuit against USF filed by student ValerieMarie Moore based on the university’s argument of sovereign immunity – that is, that a public entity can’t be sued without its consent.
“ValerieMarie Moore filed the underlying class action complaint against USF alleging claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment based on the collection of student fees for on-campus services that were not offered due to COVID-19,” the Second District’s opinion stated. “The order at issue granted USF's motion to dismiss Ms. Moore's breach-of-contract claim for the limited purpose of allowing Ms. Moore to attach her registration agreement to her amended complaint, but it otherwise denied USF's motion to dismiss on the merits of its sovereign immunity defense.”
USF, however, filed a brief earlier this month that calls on the high court to weigh in on the COVID-19 university fee issue. The lead counsel for students in the litigation argues that several Florida colleges and universities collected more than $100 million from students for on-campus health fees, transportation fees and athletic fees during the pandemic and never provided any such services.
“After spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money losing at the trial court level, and then spending much more again losing at the Second District Court of Appeal, I am frankly shocked USF would think it was wise to spend yet millions of dollars more to seek review by the Florida Supreme Court, all to basically cheat its own students out of refunds they clearly deserve,” attorney Adam Moskowitz said in an email to the Florida Record.
Some Florida university officials’ argued that they never entered into any “agreements” with students while refusing to produce relevant documents, receipts and bills, Moskowitz said.
“We always welcome review by our great Supreme Court,” he said. “However, there is simply no conflicting law here, and in fact, all of the appeal decisions follow the 2nd DCA, so it’s finally time for our public officials to stop these games and wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.”