Christopher Roinestad and Gerald Fitz-Gerald were overcome by poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas while cleaning a large grease clog in a sewer near the Hog’s Breath Saloon & Restaurant. The district court concluded that Hog’s Breath caused respondents’ injuries by dumping substantial amounts of cooking grease into the sewer. On summary judgment, the district court found Hog’s Breath liable under theories of negligence and off-premises liability, and entered a damage award in respondents’ favor. Mountain States Mutual Casualty Company (“MSM”) sought a ruling that it had no obligation to indemnify Hog’s Breath and the district court agreed, holding that dumping substantial amounts of cooking grease constituted a discharge of a pollutant under the policy’s pollution exclusion clause. The court of appeals reversed. It held that the terms of the pollution exclusion clause were ambiguous and that its application to cooking grease could lead to absurd results and negate essential coverage. The parties took the case to the Colorado Supreme Court who, in Mountain States Mutual Casualty Company v. Christopher Roinestad and Gerald Fitz-Gerald, and Tim Kirkpatrick, D/B/A Hog’s Breath Saloon & Restaurant., 2013 CO 14 (Colo. 02/25/2013), resolved the dispute.
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Business & Legal,
Environmental,
Insurance,
Insurance Claims
The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s extended beyond the ballot box to enter most U.S. workplaces. Beginning with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, federal (and follow-on states’) laws seek to ensure employees' rights to equal treatment, by prohibiting employer discrimination against employees because of any characteristics that historically have been the basis for discrimination (dubbed “protected classes”). Federally protected classes presently include the following:
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Corporate Governance,
Business & Legal,
Employer Best Practices,
Employee Rights,
EEOC,
NLRB
On February 20, 2013, the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and its international counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), completed their “substantive deliberations” on the joint project to issue a comprehensive new standard on accounting for revenue. The changes in this standard will affect almost all companies in one way or another. While minor “tweaks” might occur over the next few weeks, the major decisions have been reached.
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Corporate Governance,
Business & Legal,
SEC,
International,
Accounting & Tax,
Audit Standards,
Accountants,
GAAP,
Decision on IFRS
This month marks the twentieth anniversary of the passage of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993. FMLA requires large employers to grant eligible employees time off to respond to a broad range of medical conditions that they or their immediate family members may suffer. Since 1993, the law has been amended and expanded a number of times, with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) revising its regulations to incorporate and apply these changing requirements. For example, effective March 8, WHD has revised rules providing protections for National Guard and Reserve troops subject to deployments, and for airline flight crews.
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Business & Legal,
Employer Best Practices,
Employee Rights,
EEOC
For many years, under the authority of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Federal Trade Commission has imposed special regulations on websites and online services that are either directed to children under 13 or whose owners or operators have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children under age 13. On December 19, 2012, the FTC announced final, major changes to the COPPA Rule in response to advances in technology and internet use that have occurred since the COPPA Rule was first enacted.
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Business & Legal,
Internet,
Intellectual Property
As 2013 progresses, governments throughout North America are considering whether and how to expand regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to reduce climate change. For example, I recently wrote about California’s first sale of GHG emission allowance as part of its “AB 32” cap-and-trade program.
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Environmental risks,
Environmental,
EPA,
Greenhouse Gas,
ghg,
climate change
In the concluding part of his year in review series, Barry Zalma selects his final choice of the most significant insurance law cases of 2012:
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Business & Legal,
Insurance,
Insurance Claims,
Stormwater
Most public companies in the United States have a reporting year that ends on December 31. Such companies must report their financial results with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within 90 days (by April 1 this year since the 90th day is a Sunday), or sooner if they are an “accelerated filer” as defined by the SEC.
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Corporate Governance,
Business & Legal,
SEC,
Accounting & Tax,
Accountants,
GAAP
