Class Action Says Rutgers Owes Tuition, Fee Refunds for COVID-19-Shortened Semester [UPDATE]
Last Updated on February 1, 2022
Rocchio v. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Filed: April 30, 2020 ◆§ 2:20-cv-05390
Rutgers owes tuition and fee refunds for the coronavirus-shortened Spring 2020 semester, a class action claims.
Case Updates
January 31, 2022 – Settlement Gets Final Approval
The settlement detailed below received a judge’s final approval on January 28.
This means those who were part of the settlement (more on this below), should receive their share of the deal in the form of a credit or check once any appeals are resolved.
The deadline has already passed to opt out of the settlement or to elect how to receive a payment.
For more information, you can check out the official settlement website here.
November 4, 2021 – $5M Settlement Reached in State Court Action
Rutgers has reached a $5 million deal to settle the claims detailed on this page after the plaintiff re-filed her suit in New Jersey Superior Court last summer.
According to court documents, the settlement, if approved, will cover anyone who paid Rutgers Spring 2020 semester fees “of any type or amount,” excluding people who already received refunds.
Law360 has reported that class members, i.e., those who fit the aforementioned criteria, will receive a refund as a percentage of the total amount of fees paid during the Spring 2020 semester, including tuition, fees, or room and board costs.
Students who are still enrolled at Rutgers will receive a credit on their next tuition statement while former or inactive students will receive a refund by check, Law360 writes. Class members will not be required to submit a claim form but will automatically receive the refund unless they opt out of the settlement.
While the plaintiff in the case on this page initially dropped her claims in federal court, she and another plaintiff, a current Rutgers student, filed an amended complaint in New Jersey Superior Court in August 2020.
A final approval hearing for the proposed settlement is scheduled for January 28, 2022.
July 30, 2020 – Lawsuit Voluntarily Dismissed
The proposed class action lawsuit detailed on this page has been voluntarily dismissed without prejudice by the plaintiff, the mother of a Rutgers student.
The plaintiff’s July 28 notice of voluntary dismissal comes more than a month after the Rutgers Board of Governors approved a tuition and fee freeze for the 2020-2021 academic year. The chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors stated on the school’s website that the tuition and fee freezes were approved so students and families would be able to access “an affordable Rutgers education during this unprecedented crisis.”
The notice, however, notes no reason for the dismissal.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, faces a proposed class action wherein a parent says the school owes tuition and fee refunds for the Spring 2020 semester cut short by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
As a result of Rutgers’ response to the pandemic, students “lost the benefit of the education for which they paid, and/or the services for which their fees paid,” the 15-page breach of contract complaint argues. Even if the school had no choice in canceling in-person classes, Rutgers has “nevertheless improperly retained funds for services it is not providing,” the suit contests.
Rutgers, New Jersey’s largest university, announced on March 10 via letter that all classes were canceled through March 22 and would begin to be held remotely on March 23, the case says. According to the plaintiff, however, the online learning options offered by Rutgers during the pandemic are “subpar in practically every aspect” and fall far short of the access to facilities, materials, and hands-on instruction for which students already paid tuition and fees.
“The remote learning options are in no way the equivalent of the in-person education that Plaintiff and the putative class members contracted and paid for,” the complaint reads. “Nevertheless, Rutgers has not refunded any tuition or fees for the Spring 2020 semester.”
The plaintiff, whose son is pursuing a degree in supply chain management, says that Rutgers’ program for such relies extensively on “in-person instruction, meaningful student presentations, peer collaboration, and access to university facilities.” The suit reiterates that none of these resources are available to the student while in-person classes are suspended. The plaintiff’s son’s tuition and fees ran more than $8,000 for the shortened spring semester, according to the complaint.
Rutgers joins universities in California, as well as Vanderbilt, Columbia, Pace, Cornell, Arizona’s state schools, Liberty University, Drexel and the University of Miami, among many others, in facing proposed class action litigation in search of tuition and/or fee refunds due to COVID-19 campus closures.
ClassAction.org’s coverage of COVID-19 litigation can be found here and over on our Newswire.
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