Future of Tyson Covid Death Suits Hinges on Supreme Court Action

The US Supreme Court’s impending decision to take up or reject Tyson Foods Inc.’s appeals of two Covid-19 worker death liability cases will affect more than a dozen similar cases involving meat processors that are now with federal courts.

While the details of the lawsuits differ, a common thread among all the cases is whether federal courts should treat the meat processors as quasi-federal entities and therefore possibly exempt from death liability claims, or instead as private companies and thus required to fight the lawsuits in state courts where the cases were originally filed.

At least 20 lawsuits against meat ...