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Attorney General Todd Rokita is asking the state Supreme Court to decide if students can file class-action lawsuits against Indiana’s public universities to recover tuition and fees paid for services not rendered due to cancellation of in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keller J. Mellowitz sued Ball State in May 2020 on behalf of himself and a yet-to-be-determined group of other students, seeking compensation for fees paid to the university for services not rendered during the spring term. The campus was closed by executive order of Gov. Eric Holcomb in March 2020, about halfway through the semester.

The suit seeks compensation for in-person tuition, student services fees, university technology fees, student recreation fees, student health fees and student transportation fees. Mellowitz states that there were more than 22,500 students enrolled in Ball State that academic year.

In 2021 the Legislature passed a law forbidding the filing of a class action lawsuit in a pandemic-related case against a public university. Indiana Code 34-12-5-7 states: “A claimant may not bring, and a court may not certify, a class action lawsuit against a covered entity for loss or damages arising from COVID-19 in a contract, implied contract, quasi-contract, or unjust enrichment claim.”

In February 2022, a judge ruled, based on that law, that Mellowitz could not bring a class-action suit and ordered that Mellowitz remove mention of other plaintiffs from his complaint.

However, in October a three-member court of appeals unanimously ruled the Indiana law in question is in conflict with Indiana Trial Rule 23, which governs class action lawsuits. The court stated, “The conflict between the rule and the statute at issue could not be more

stark: Trial Rule 23 says that a claimant “may” bring a class action, and Section

7 says that a claimant “may not” do so. . . . Accordingly, we conclude that Section 7 is a nullity, and therefore we reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this decision.”

In his appeal, Rokita contends the court should weigh in on the constitutionality of the law barring COVID19 related class-action lawsuits against public institutions, and the appeals court’s decision “directly affects four of our largest educational institutions and potentially affects public fiscal interests.”

Ball State received more than $77 million in federal relief funds between March 13 and Dec. 21, 2020. About $35 million was disbursed to students and some $42 million retained by the university.

Ball State lists tuition and fees for the current academic year at $21,236 for Indiana students and $38,720 for nonresidents.

Indiana’s six residential public universities have a total enrollment of more than 140,000 students.