1/11 Peter Daszak sued EcoHealth and its board for firing him and withholding severance.
On 28 July 2026 Justice Jennifer G. Schecter dismissed the whole complaint.
👉🏻 Not "in part." All of it.
@thackerpd @SenRandPaul @SenRonJohnson #DRASTIC
2/11 "for the reasons stated on the record … defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint is GRANTED … Clerk is directed to enter judgment dismissing the complaint."
Discovery stay: denied as moot. Nothing left to discover.
3/11 Three claims:
- Age discrimination — NY State Human Rights Law
- Age discrimination — NYC Human Rights Law
- Breach of contract — EcoHealth handbook §25.7 (severance after a "nonperformance" layoff)
Daszak was on the Teams call. Raised his hand.
Judge told him to speak only through counsel.
4/11 Contract claim dies on the document.
The handbook says it is "not a contract and not intended to create obligations of any kind." Employees sign that employment is at-will: terminated any time, with or without cause.
5/11 In any case severance is only for layoffs "for nonperformance-related reasons."
Judge: personal debarment is a performance reason. HHS issued suspension and proposed debarment on 15 May 2024. Termination: 5–6 January 2025.
💥 "How would being debarred not be a performance reason?"
6/11 Age claims: "zero facts."
"all of the folks he laid off were younger than him, all of them received severance except for Dr. Daszak who was the eldest and most qualified person."
Judge: "Were they debarred?" 🤷♂️
7/11 The only age allegation in the complaint is that he is 59. No remark. No policy. No fact from which to infer that age was the reason he was fired or denied severance.
Younger staff who got severance were not debarred and did not sit where he sat in the entity under investigation.
8/11 Counsel wanted discovery: asked in 2024 if he planned to retire; board ignored bylaws; firing "in cahoots" with agencies "to curry favor with Senator Paul."
Schecter: that is not age discrimination. Without pleaded facts, discovery is a fishing expedition. Thomas v. Mintz, 182 A.D.3d 490.
9/11 Judge's line on the conspiracy pitch:
"I hear about a government conspiracy, and a fall person … but that isn't age-based discrimination."
Ruling: no facts for age claims under State or City law; handbook "definitively not able to be the basis of a contract claim."
Case dismissed.
10/11 25 August 2026: Notice of Appeal to the First Department (NYSCEF 71).
The trial court is finished. The Appellate Division is not.
Gilles Demaneuf
@gdemaneuf
Pointy Head. Opinions, analyses and views expressed are purely mine and should not in any way be characterised as representing any institution or company.