Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C., Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Yale University Seeking Tuition Reimbursement After COVID-19 Forced Classes Online
Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C., recently filed a class action lawsuit in Connecticut federal court against Yale University regarding the school’s failure to partially reimburse tuition payments students made once the school shifted to online-only classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit is an undergraduate student at Yale. He is seeking a partial refund of the tuition, fees, and other related payments for in-person educational services, access to facilities, and related opportunities that Yale did not provide its students as a result of its shift to online-only classes during the Spring 2020 semester.
The class of people our client is seeking to represent in the lawsuit is made up of all students who paid Yale Spring 2020 semester tuition, fees, and/or room and board, either directly or through a third party paying on their behalf, for in-person educational services and use of campus facilities that Yale did not provide, and whose tuition and fees have not been refunded.
In the lawsuit, our client alleges that once Yale University stopped providing live classes around March 23, the school could no longer deliver the educational services, facilities, access, and/or opportunities its students and parents paid for and contracted for.
“At its core, this is a case about not getting what you paid for,” said Jim Francis, a partner at Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C., and one of the lead attorneys in the case. “There is just no justification for making parents and students pay full freight for an exorbitant tuition at an elite Ivy League school for what is a far inferior educational product. In addition to the overcharge is the inequity of it,” Francis continued. “Yale’s policy is just unconscionable. In addition to saving carrying costs and overhead yet failing to pass them on at a time when most of the country is hurting financially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Yale is sitting on a $30-billion endowment for which the interest alone would pay all of its students’ tuition bills for a year. Yet Yale wants to pass 100% of the hardship onto its students. It is just wrong on so, so many levels.”
The lawsuit claims that Yale breached its contract with its students and parents. It also alleges that the school was unjustly enriched by collecting full tuition and certain fees despite not providing in-person classes.
The filing of the lawsuit was reported on by the Daily Mail, Fox & Friends, FoxNews.com, Hartford Courant, Washington Post, WFSB Eyewitness 3, and the Yale Daily News.
If you paid a business or an organization for services or products that it failed to provide to you because of the COVID-19 pandemic, you may have a legal claim against that business or organization. Click here to schedule a free case review with a representative of Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C.