A lawsuit against the Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, filed by about 80 employees who objected to its COVID-19 vaccination policy, was dismissed.
The plaintiffs, led by Shawn Phillip Rhoades, and defendant Savannah River Nuclear Solutions filed a joint motion for dismissal dated Thursday in the U.S. District Court in South Carolina.
The case is dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be revived, and each party is responsible for its own legal fees, according to the three-page document.
The development is not a big surprise given the plaintiffs agreed to drop their appeal about a month earlier in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. There the plaintiffs dropped their appeal of U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs rejection of their request for a temporary injunction halting the vaccination policy.
The plaintiffs, however, were still free to pursue their underlying arguments against the vaccination policy back in the U.S. District Court in South Carolina, according to online court documents. Instead, they elected to end the litigation.
Judge Childs, last month confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, earlier sided with Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions and rejected the requests for an injunction.
The management and operations contractor argued it was both following White House policy and making a sensible move to protect worker health during a pandemic. The contractor said last year more than 96% of its current workforce was already vaccinated.
