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California Student Sues School for Partial Refund Due to Lack of In-person Learning

A person walks on the California State University Long Beach campus before the return of students for Fall classes in Long Beach, Calif. on Aug. 11, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last March, many colleges and universities sent their students home for in-person learning. For many college seniors, this meant not only the loss of on-campus resources but the loss of their final months of the college experience. Now, students across the country are suing their universities and seeking reimbursement for the months they spent in the spring 2020 semester learning online.

A California Lutheran University student is suing the school and seeking reimbursement for tuition and fees after students were denied in-person learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Angeleno Nicolas Montalvo’s proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Oct. 15, alleging breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and theft of property.

“We filed this case on behalf of all the students at Cal Lutheran who, during the spring 2020 semester, paid the full amount of tuition and fees for access to campus facilities, labs, libraries, technologies, and all the other benefits that campus-based in-person educational experience provides. At the same time, Cal Lutheran was unable to provide the full amount of services, and yet decided to keep the full amount of tuition and fees,” the plaintiff’s attorney Jon Tostrud told Pezou.

lawsuit claims that Montalvo and other students have been deprived of access to libraries, laboratories, computer labs, study rooms, and other valuable components of the university such as classroom dialogue, collaboration, and feedback.

Tostrud alleges that the university’s decision to keep the full amount of tuition and fees while not providing the full amount of services violated contract law in California.

suit requests the university reimburse tuition for pro-rated tuition and mandatory fees, adjusted to the amount of time when classes switched to online on March 13, 2020, for all students enrolled during the Spring 2020 semester.

“ potential [opposition] is that the COVID-19 pandemic was not the university’s fault, obviously, but it was also equally obviously not the student’s fault,” Tostrud said. “So the university [does not have] the right to keep the full amount of tuition and fees when the students did not get what they signed up for, in terms of services.”

Tostrud did not give the approximate amount that Montalvo would receive should he win the lawsuit, but said it was in the “thousands.”

According to the lawsuit, Cal Lutheran charged Montalvo approximately $11,360 in tuition and over $1,400 in fees for the spring 2020 semester.

Cal Lutheran’s tuition is about $45,500 per year for full-time undergraduate students, with an approximate addition of $512 in fees, according to the school’s website.

A spokesperson for Cal Lutheran University verified to Pezou that the institution received the lawsuit, but declined to comment further.

Cal Lutheran began offering some in-person outdoor classrooms in Fall 2020. Thousand Oaks campus returned to in-person learning for the Fall 2021 semester.

Some California universities, including Pepperdine University and Rice University, have been sued by students seeking reimbursement for the lack of in-person classes during the Spring 2020 semester.

Pezou : California Student Sues School for Partial Refund Due to Lack of In-person Learning