Lessons Learned From the 1918 Pandemic: Historical and Legal Framework of the Spanish Flu and How It Relates to Today’s Crisis

Webinar

Program

Join us for a live webinar exploring parallels, differences and lessons learned from the 1918 flu pandemic. Sandra Opdycke, author of The Flu Epidemic of 1918, will set the stage with a look back on varying government and court reactions to the 1918 disaster. This will be followed by a conversation moderated by our Chair of the Board Stephen P. Younger with Ms. Opdycke, Ernest B. Abbott, Former General Counsel of FEMA, and Patterson Belknap partner Muhammed Faridi on state and federal government powers to issue quarantines, COVID-19 testing and other mandated measures, and cases decided as a result of this pandemic. There will be an opportunity for a Q&A with emailed questions.

Speakers

Sandra Opdycke, Author of The Flu Epidemic of 1918
Ernest B. Abbott, Esq., Former General Counsel of FEMA
Muhammad U. Faridi, Esq., Partner, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
Moderator, Stephen P. Younger, Esq., Chair of the Board, Historical Society of the New York Courts

Sponsored by Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Watch the Program Video

Related Cases:

• Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905)
• Phelps v. Sch. Dist. 109, Wayne Cty., 134 N.E. 312, 313 (Ill. 1922) (rejecting attempt to avoid paying teacher’s salary because school was closed for a two month period due to the pandemic)
• Gregg Sch. Twp., Morgan Cty. v. Hinshaw, 132 N.E. 586, 587 (Ind. App. 1921) (excusing school board from paying teaching salaries on the basis of impossibility after school was closed board of health)
• Whitman v. Anglum, 92 Conn. 392 (1918) (“hoof and mouth” disease affecting contract performance)
• Napier v. Trace Fork Mining Co., 193 Ky. 291 (1921) (rail road contract bonus fee not recovered because of influenza pandemic)
• Gregg Sch. Twp., Morgan Cty. v. Hinshaw, 132 N.E. 586, 587 (Ind. App. 1921) (excusing school board from paying teaching salaries on the basis of impossibility after school was closed board of health)
• Zian Sung Wan v. United States, 266 U.S. 1 (1924) (admissibility of confession by defendant suffering from influenza)
• Wong Wai v. Williamson, 103 F. 1 (Cir. Ct. N.D. Cal. 1900) (declaring null and void regulation prohibiting persons of “Asiatic or Mongolian race” from leaving the city without first submitting to inoculation with a preventative serum)
• Hickox v. Christie, 205 F.Supp.3d 579 (2016) (Ebola case)

Historical Society of the New York Courts programming is sponsored by Humanities New York.