The plaintiffs have argued that, before the pandemic, the school treated in-person and online classes as separate offerings and charged more for some in-person programs than they did for similar online classes.A lawsuit against the University of Delaware over its campus shutdown and halting of in-person classes because of coronavirus can proceed as a class action on behalf of thousands of students who were enrolled and paid tuition in spring 2020, a federal judge has ruled.
"Those students, no less than students who paid out of their own pockets, were parties to a contract that U. Delaware allegedly breached," wrote the judge, who noted that the only students excluded from the class would be those who received full rides. The plaintiffs are seeking partial refunds of their spring 2020 tuition, having earlier agreed to dismiss their claims arising from student fees."That is false," Bibas wrote. "The named plaintiffs paid tuition, through either loans or cash from their parents."
The judge previously rejected the university's argument that it expressly reserved the right to go online, but he noted Friday that the plaintiffs' right to restitution depends on the school's "net enrichment."