All New York City employers should take heed regarding the City’s newly announced vaccine mandate applicable to all private sector employers in NYC. Although we expect legal challenges to be filed, employers should strongly consider becoming familiar with the requirements and developing an implementation plan (including employee communications) in the event that the mandate is not stayed by court order on a temporary basis.

Less than a month after we alerted you to the staggering nuclear verdict awarded in the Cruz matter out of Harris County, Texas (Houston), another Texas jury has returned an incredible nuclear verdict. The nine-figure verdict is yet another sobering reminder that now the entire state of Texas is a problematic venue for corporate transportation defendants that are inexperienced and ill-equipped to defend catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death claims under the Reptile Strategy.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law on November 15, 2021, provides federal funding for improving basic infrastructure such as highways, roads, bridges, airports, and rail. The bill also includes considerable funding for upgrading electric and water delivery systems, expanding broadband and electric vehicle infrastructure, and addressing greenhouse gas emissions, climate resiliency, environmental justice, and workforce issues.

On November 23, 2021, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would extend through May 31, 2022, the agency’s reconsideration of a 2014 Proposed Determination to restrict mining associated with a specific mineral deposit within a vast area of Alaska. 

New York Partners Patricia Alarcon Demetri and Gina Suarez Misiaszek recently secured a precedent-setting ruling on behalf of a ridesharing company insurer client when Justice Ulysses B. Leverett of the Supreme Court of New York, Queens County issued a decision determining that supplemental uninsured motorist (SUM) benefits were not available to a rideshare passenger who was involved in an accident. 

Earlier this month, OSHA issued emergency workplace safety rules requiring businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their employees are vaccinated or submit to regular COVID-19 testing. In response, on November 18, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law four bills passed during a special session of the Florida legislature, which limit employers’ ability to impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates and prohibit school districts from adopting a mask mandate or requiring asymptomatic students that have been exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine and require Florida to set up its own OSHA program.

Our recent alert described the OSHA emergency temporary standard (ETS) – promulgated on November 5, 2021 – requiring vaccinations or testing by employers with at least 100 employees, which was issued in response to President Biden’s directive of September 9. We advised as to the planned dates by which covered employers had to become compliant, as well as the measures required to achieve compliance. However, OSHA has announced a suspension of activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS in light of the November 12 decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the ETS.