Law Poses No Duty on Insurance Brokers to Disclose Incentive Arrangements to Customers The Attorney General sued the insurance broker of Wells Fargo Insurance Services, Inc., alleging breach of fiduciary duties and also his repeated fraudulent or illegal acts in violation of the common-law statute. The New York Court of Appeals affirmed, as neither did the broker make any affirmative misrepresentations to the customers nor did any customer suffer demonstrable harm from the incentive arrangements. Best Strategies in Defending Professional Negligence Actions Against Insurance Agents and Brokers in Pennsylvania By Thomas Paschos, Esq. of Thomas Paschos & Associates, P.C In Pennsylvania, the basic elements of a cause of action founded upon negligence are (i) a duty, or obligation, recognized by the law, requiring the actor to conform to a certain standard of conduct, for the protection of others against unreasonable risks; (ii) a failure on his part to conform to the standard required; (iii) a reasonably close causal connection between the conduct and the resulting injury and (iv) actual loss or damage resulting to the interests of another.[28] Missouri Court of Appeals Finds All-Sums Language Does Not Limit Coverage to Damage During the Policy Period By Duana J. Grage, Esq. of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP
The Doe Run Resources Corporation v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's London, __ S.W.3d__, (Mo. App. Apr. 16, 2013) On April 16, 2013, the Missouri Court of Appeals embraced an "all-sums" approach to long-tail environmental exposure claims by reversing a trial court's ruling that limited the insurer's coverage obligations to sums owed under a pro rata approach. The court reinstated a jury verdict award against the insurer for $62,481,238.30, which represented all environmental remediation costs paid by its insured.
Utah Enacts the Internet Employment Privacy Act: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly By Scott Sweeney, Esq. of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP Joining Maryland (SB 433), Illinois (HB 3782), California (AB 1844), Michigan (PA 478) and New Mexico (SB 371), Utah has enacted legislation limiting an employer's right to request that an employee or a job applicant provide his or her social media login information, including their username and password. Cephas is Still a Tough Standard for the Claimant to Satisfy in a Delaware Stress Claim By Jessica L. Julian, Esq. of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, P.C. Dan Pelletier v. Delaware Community Investment Corp., (IAB #1380379 - Decided 2/13/13) Under Cephas, in a pure mental stress claim (unlike a physical/mental claim), in order to be successful on a petition, a claimant must offer evidence demonstrating objectively that his work conditions were actually stressful. In addition, the claimant must prove that such conditions were a substantial cause of the claimant's mental disorder. Under this two-prong test, the stress does not have to be "unusual' or "extraordinary."
By Goldberg Segalla, LLP In a decision handed down last week, the Second Circuit reaffirmed its long-standing holding that a "paramour preference" - a situation where a supervisor shows favoritism towards one employee over another due to the existence of a romantic relationship between the supervisor and the favored employee - does not give rise to claims for sexual discrimination under either Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the New York State Human Rights Law.ubstantial Completion and the Statute of Limitations in Construction Defect Cases
Mitigating Risk In Hospital Mergers And Consolidations Through Careful Consideration of Workplace Laws By Jackson Lewis LLP The healthcare industry in the New York metropolitan area has been transformed in the last two decades through merger, acquisition and consolidation. Venerable independent institutions have been acquired by hospital systems; massive teaching hospitals have joined together to create even broader systems. Some institutions have disappeared. | 
