In a setback to Disney, a judge has ruled that ABC must go to court over a lawsuit filed by two General Hospital crewmembers who were fired for refusing to comply with the studio’s COVID vaccine mandate.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued the order on Tuesday, signaling a potentially important legal showdown that could impact numerous Americans who stood up to draconian employer and government mandates — and consequently lost their jobs or were denied services.
Plaintiffs James and Timothy Wahl, who are father and son, have argued that ABC should have given them religious exemptions from the vaccine due to their Christian beliefs and allowed them to continue working on General Hospital.
An attorney for the Wahls addressed the court’s decision.
“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,” attorney Scott Street told Deadline.
“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.”
Like some major studios, the Walt Disney Company implemented vaccine mandates that were recommended by various Hollywood guilds and unions. Disney’s mandate were especially strict, requiring all salaried and non-union hourly employees in the U.S. who work on site to be fully vaccinated.
Even at the height of the pandemic, there was no industry-wide vaccine standard, leading to a confusing patchwork of requirements for crews and actors working multiple jobs.
Adding to the chaos, many TV and movie sets established various “zones” with different vaccination requirements, with the zone closest to actors being the strictest.
In a separate case, former General Hospital actor Ingo Rademacher lost his suit against ABC last year, after he was fired from the show.
The actor, who played Jasper “Jax” Jacks for more than two decades on the daytime soap opera, said he requested a religious exemption from the mandate from ABC, and alleged he was fired for refusing to comply.
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