{"id":1170,"date":"2024-02-05T14:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T18:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/?p=1170"},"modified":"2025-07-18T09:12:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:12:28","slug":"california-federal-court-denies-class-certification-of-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/2024\/02\/05\/california-federal-court-denies-class-certification-of-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"California Federal Court Denies Class Certification Of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/b>Duane Morris Takeaways: <\/i><\/b>On January 28, 2024, in Chavez, et al. v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, No. 22-CV-06119, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14785 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 28, 2024), Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied<\/a> class certification for a failure to accommodate religious beliefs claim premised on a workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandate.\u00a0 Specifically, the Court held that the putative class was not certifiable as the class failed to meet Rule 23(b)(3)\u2019s predominance and superiority requirements. The decision is a good roadmap for employers dealing with the continuing fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

Background Of The Case<\/b><\/p>\n

Defendant San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (\u201cBART\u201d) implemented a workplace policy mandating that all employees needed a COVID-19 vaccination by December 21, 2021.\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 2.\u00a0 In response, BART received 188 requests for religious exemption and accommodation.\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>While some employees did not complete the exemption application process, 148 employees submitted applications to BART, noting varying belief systems such as \u201cChristianity,\u201d \u201cCatholic,\u201d \u201cIslamism,\u201d or even personal belief systems such as being \u201canti tyranny [sic<\/i>].\u201d\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 3.\u00a0 A panel of BART employees then reviewed each application individually and conducted further interviews with the applicants before deciding to grant or deny the request.\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 5.<\/p>\n

Of the 148 completed applications, BART granted 70 religious exemptions and denied 78.\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>Those who were denied were given the option to either comply with the mandate, retire, voluntarily resign, or be terminated.\u00a0 Id. <\/i>In total, 36 employees either retired, resigned, or were terminated.\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>BART considered accommodation for the 70 employees who were granted exemptions, but ultimately did not provide any accommodations as they could not \u201cidentify a reasonable accommodation that did not place an undue hardship on the District.\u201d\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 6.\u00a0 Of the 70 applicants who were denied accommodation, 37 resigned, retired, or were terminated.\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>BART additionally received 25 requests for medical exemptions, and eight medical exemptions were granted, with those employees being placed on unpaid leave that only ended upon vaccination.\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

Plaintiff Gabriel Chavez and 16 other named plaintiffs filed a class action complaint alleging that BART\u2019s policy violated Title VII, the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion under 42 U.S.C. \u00a7 1983, and California\u2019s Fair Employment and Housing Act (\u201cFEHA\u201d).\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 7. <\/i>\u00a0Plaintiff sought to certify a class pursuant to Rule 23(b)(3) composed of \u201call employees employed by BART who (1) have been ordered to submit to a COVID-19 vaccination, (2) have sincerely held religious beliefs which prevent them from taking the vaccine, (3) have submitted a request for a religious exemption, and (4) were denied a religious accommodation.\u201d\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>Plaintiff also proposed a second, alternative class consisting of all employees employed by BART who \u201c(1) have been ordered to submit to a COVID-19 vaccination, (2) have sincerely held religious beliefs which prevent them from taking the vaccine, (3) have submitted a request for religious exemption and religious accommodation, and (4) whose request for a religious exemption were denied.\u201d\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

The Court\u2019s Ruling<\/b><\/p>\n

The Court examined the class certification requirements under Rule 23(b)(3), which provide that a plaintiff must establish \u201cthat the questions of law or fact common to class members predominate over any questions affecting only individual members, and that a class action is superior to other available methods for fairly and efficiently adjudicating the controversy.\u201d\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at *8.\u00a0 <\/i>The Court held that Plaintiffs\u2019 proposed class, as well as the proposed alternative class, did not satisfy the predominance and superiority requirements, and denied Plaintiffs\u2019 certification motion.\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 23.<\/p>\n

First, the Court examined the requirement of common issues predominating over any questions affecting only individual members.\u00a0 Id.<\/i> at 11-20.\u00a0 With respect to Plaintiffs\u2019 Title VII and FEHA claims, the Court noted that whether or not an individual had a bona fide<\/i> religious belief \u2013 a requirement for both claims \u2013 there were too many individual systems of belief to examine.\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 12.\u00a0 The Court held that nearly every named plaintiffs\u2019 application contained a distinct system of belief, and any examination of whether or not a request rested on a \u201cbona fide<\/i> religious belief\u201d would necessarily require an individual inquiry into each plaintiffs\u2019 belief system.\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>The Court expressed doubt that the various written or interview responses of one plaintiff will have any evidentiary impact on the bona fide religious belief of the class as a whole.\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

Next, the Court held that BART\u2019s undue hardship showing required an individualized inquiry of factual issues.\u00a0 Id. <\/i>\u00a0The Court noted that the potential class members are drawn from a large diversity of jobs \u2013 over a dozen unique jobs \u2013 and that accommodations reasonably considered for a \u201ctrain conductor\u2019s request bear no relation to the job functions and reasonable accommodations BART must consider when evaluating the exemption request of a manager of technology programs, a fire protection worker, or a police officer, or a senior operations supervisor liaison.\u201d\u00a0 Id.<\/i> 13-14.\u00a0 <\/i>Further, the Court found that the inclusion of some union employees in the putative class also required individualized inquiries as the union\u2019s contracted-for-rights \u201cgrant impacted workers certain rights, such as seniority, that BART is not required to transgress upon.\u201d\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 14.\u00a0 Moreover, the Court indicated that a significant portion of the class would not be impacted by an \u201cundue hardship\u201d analysis, as 78 of the proposed members were not even considered for accommodation.\u00a0\u00a0 Id.<\/i> at 15.\u00a0 <\/i>The Court did acknowledge that some aspects of the undue hardship consideration may be more amenable to common proof, but in light of the putative class\u2019s \u201cjob diversity,\u201d it reasoned that any undue hardship analysis \u201ccannot be understood without an interrogation of individual employees\u2019 job duties.\u201d\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>at 16.<\/p>\n

As to the Free Exercise of Religion Claims, the Court determined that those claims could not satisfy the predominance requirement.\u00a0 In doing so, it noted that \u201cthe sincerity and religious nature of plaintiffs\u2019 belief is . . . an individualized issue.\u201d\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 20.\u00a0 The Court found that each of the plaintiffs cited a \u201cmyriad\u201d of religious and of personal experiences, along with refusal due to \u201cCDC VARS data and concerns regarding health consequences, the Organization of American States Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Senate Bill 1383 and Senate Bill 1159, among others.\u201d\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>The Court concluded that the need to determine whether plaintiffs have met the bona fide<\/i> religious belief threshold required individualized inquiries, which ultimately foreclosed class certification.\u00a0 Id.<\/i><\/p>\n

Finally, the Court found that the putative class did not satisfy Rule 23(b)(3)\u2019s superiority requirement.\u00a0 The Court reasoned that class members have \u201csignificant interest in the individual control of their claims.\u201d\u00a0 Id. <\/i>at 21-22.\u00a0 As an example, it noted that two potential class members have already brought individual actions against BART, and that seventeen other employees had filed suit in a third case.\u00a0 Id.<\/i> at 22. The Court held that \u201c[p]utative class members\u2019 demonstrated interest in bringing and controlling these various litigations further reflects the significant monetary and emotional stakes at issue, and counsels against certification.\u201d\u00a0 Id.\u00a0 <\/i>In closing, the Court noted that given \u201cthe wide range of individual issues and proof\u201d there will also likely be difficulties in managing the class action.\u00a0 Id.<\/i><\/p>\n

Implications For Employers<\/i><\/p>\n

The ruling in Chavez, et al. v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District<\/i> confirms that the need for individualized inquiries is a strong impediment to certifying a class action premised on COVID-19 vaccine accommodation theories of liability. This ruling stresses the specific importance of these individualized inquiries in the context of religious accommodations, which have recently been the subject of significant litigation after many employers implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the workplace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Duane Morris Takeaways: On January 28, 2024, in Chavez, et al. v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, No. 22-CV-06119, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14785 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 28, 2024), Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied class certification for a failure to accommodate religious beliefs … <\/p>\n

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