A multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleged Nova Southeastern University did not give students everything they paid for, and that these students should receive partial reimbursements on tuition and fees.

In response to the coronavirus, Nova announced around March 13 that it was suspending all in-person classes and that the courses will be resumed online a week later. In the complaint, the plaintiff alleged that these online programs provided less value than in-person classes.

Leo Ferretti, the class representative, was then a student at Nova's College of Osteopathic Medicine, and is represented by Brenton Jeremy Goodman, a partner at Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Echsner & Proctor in Pensacola.

Ferretti is among several students across the country who have sued their universities for refunds of a portion of the tuition and fees paid to the universities prior to the pandemic.

And no university is immune from these types of claims. Students have filed lawsuits against private universities, including Harvard University and the University of Miami, which have thousands of students who could be affected, as well as public school systems, like Florida's State University System, representing the interests of more than 300,000 students.

Now, the U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale will hear arguments on whether the class is entitled to a prorated refund of tuition for the duration of Nova's COVID-19 related closure for the services the university did not provide or did so in a "severely diminished manner."

The complaint stated that Nova has about 13,600 students enrolled for in-person instruction. Undergraduate students paid flat-rate tuition of more than $15,500 for 12 to 18 credits for each semester, while graduate student tuition varied by program. Ferretti, for example, paid tuition that was more than $27,000 and had fees exceeding $1,000 for the 2020 spring semester. To cover the payments, Ferretti had to incur student loan debt.

Read the complaint:

In the complaint, Ferretti argued that Nova does not just sell credit hours and diplomas like some "common consumer commodity." Instead, Ferretti claimed the university sold an experience enriched through personal and academic "hands-on experiential learning, social interaction, and involvement with faculty and other students."

The complaint described the class members as those who paid tuition for themselves or someone else at Nova for an in-person class or classes during the 2020 spring and summer semester; and a subclass consisting of only residents in the State of Florida.

In the complaint, Ferretti argued that Nova is profiting from the coronavirus by asking students and their families to bear the financial brunt of the pandemic.

"The result is a windfall to defendant," Ferretti alleged in the complaint. "Defendant's performance under the contracts is not excused because of COVID-19."

While Joel Berman, vice president for legal affairs at Nova declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation, a similar lawsuit against the University of Miami could provide a clue as to how the counsel for universities may litigate these breach of contract cases.

Lawyers for the University of Miami argued that the plaintiff made a reference to an admission agreement, but failed to present a specific rule, policy or contractual term that was allegedly breached.

"It is clear that plaintiff's claims are based on her allegation that virtual educational services are 'subpar' to in-person educational services," the lawyers contend. "Such a claim simply does not exist under Florida law."