University’s COVID-19 Coverage Action Remanded to State Court

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Washington federal judge has remanded a university’s COVID-19 coverage action to state court, ruling that Factory Mutual Insurance Co. failed to establish federal diversity jurisdiction.

In an Oct. 26 order, Judge Thomas O. Rice explained that Washington State University (WSU) is an arm of the state because it lacks “a sufficiently independent corporate character” to constitute a political subdivision.

“This finding is consistent with the Ninth Circuit’s holding that a state university is an arm of the state for purposes of Eleventh Amendment immunity,” the judge explained, citing Flint v. Dennison, 488 F.3d 816, 825 …