General Hospital is both a medical and a legal drama — on-screen and off. The Covid vaccine mandate may have been lifted, but the repercussions of the original requirement are still playing out.
General Hospital: Back to Court
While Ingo Rademacher’s (ex-Jax) case against Disney and ABC over their vaccine mandate was dismissed, a similar case will have its day in court. Deadline reports that ABC and Disney have failed in their effort to dismiss a discrimination suit filed by two former GH crew members over the Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
Father and son duo James Wahl and Tim Wahl expressed to GH and ABC their genuine Christian religious beliefs, desiring an exemption from the mandated vaccines. However, they were let go for refusing to abide by established protocols. ABC told the pair that it was “unable to conclude that you are prevented from receiving the Covid-19 vaccine due to a sincerely-held religious belief, practice, or observance.”
LA Superior Court Judge Stephen Goorvitch agreed with ABC to toss out the Wahls’s invasion of privacy claim, but the GH VFX (Visual Effects) department members are going to get their case decided by a jury.
A trial date has been set for Monday, March 11.
“Because this necessarily involves a credibility determination, it is difficult to grant summary adjudication of this issue,” Judge Goorvitch wrote in a February 20 order. “While Defendant’s counsel identifies seeming inconsistencies, Plaintiffs raise sufficient facts to give rise to a triable issue, viz., their explanations of their religious beliefs.
“The jury, not the judge, should determine whether Plaintiffs were genuine in their beliefs, given the disputed facts and the necessity of making credibility determinations.”
After being fired by ABC and GH in late 2021, the Wahls initially sued for religious and disability discrimination in June 2022. Later, the disability claims, wrongful termination, and retaliation were dropped.
“As many people move beyond the pandemic, this ruling should serve as a reminder of the thousands of people who lost their careers because they asserted their rights and stood up to their employers’ efforts to make them violate their conscience,” Scott Street, attorney for the Wahls, said. “The pandemic won’t be over until every corporation that violated its employees’ rights has been held accountable. We look forward to presenting this case to a jury soon.”
Street was the attorney for Rademacher. Judge Goorvitch was the same judge in that case, too. At press time, ABC did not immediately return a request for a statement.
In the summer of 2020, GH aired encore episodes once it ran out of original shows that were shot prior to the Covid-19 lockdown. The GH annual fan event was also canceled that year.
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