USF backed in fight over campus shutdown during COVID

TALLAHASSEE — As the Florida Supreme Court ponders a similar case, a circuit judge last week backed the University of South Florida in a dispute about whether students should receive fee refunds because services were not available during a COVID-19 campus shutdown in 2020.

Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Darren Farfante issued a summary judgment in favor of USF in the class-action lawsuit, which was filed in 2021 on behalf of named plaintiff ValerieMarie Moore. The case, one of numerous similar disputes in Florida and across the country, centered on fees students paid for services such as transportation and athletics.

Farfante ruled that the USF Board of Trustees, the defendant in the case, was entitled to sovereign immunity, a concept that generally shields government agencies from li