Fairfield Connecticut Building Expert Directory

Another TV Fried as Georgia Leads U.S. in Lightning Costs

June 26, 2014 — Kelly Gilblom – Bloomberg
Georgia tops a shocking list: most likely place to have property damaged by lightning. Georgia residents were reimbursed for $56 million of lightning-related damage in homes last year tied to more than 11,000 claims, according to a top-10 list from the Insurance Information Institute. Texas ranked second at $54.2 million. Once lightning is “in the wiring, it’s electrifying anything connected to that,” John Jensenius, a lightning-safety specialist at the National Weather Service, said today in a phone interview. “Televisions, and even things like microwaves, they all have little chips in them so they all can get fried pretty easily.” Lightning cost insurers $5,869 per claim in the U.S. last year, more than double the average in 2004, as homeowners added electronics such as computers and high-definition televisions. Still, the total expense for the industry declined 8.4 percent nationwide in that span, to $673.5 million in 2013, because better lightning-protection systems and fewer storms decreased the frequency of claims, the industry group said. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Kelly Gilblom, Bloomberg
Ms. Gilblom may be contacted at kgilblom@bloomberg.net

Farewell Capsule Tower, Tokyo’s Oddest Building

April 25, 2022 — Reed Stevenson - Bloomberg
Anyone who has seen Tokyo's Nakagin Capsule Tower will remember it. Studded with grey cubes, the striking building carries an obvious architectural message: this is a modular habitat. Built half a century ago during Japan’s dizzying ascent as an economic power, the 140-unit complex has been left behind by the times, overshadowed by taller and sleeker skyscrapers that overlook the city of 14 million. Once demolition officially starts April 12, scaffolding will surround the two towers that make up the building. The capsules will then be plucked off one by one, most likely behind protective sheets of plastic because they contain asbestos. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Reed Stevenson, Bloomberg

Montana Supreme Court: Insurer Not Bound by Insured's Settlement

December 02, 2019 — K. Alexandra Byrd - Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C.
In Draggin’ Y Cattle Co., Inc. v. Junkermier, et al.1 the Montana Supreme Court held that where an insurer defends its insured and the insured subsequently settles the claims without an insurer’s participation, a court may approve the settlement as between the underlying plaintiff and underlying defendant, but the settlement will not be presumed reasonable as to the insurer. Therefore, an insurer who defends its insured cannot be bound by a stipulated settlement that the insurer did not expressly consent to. The case involved Draggin’ Y Cattle Company (the “Cattle Company”), a ranching and cattle business that utilized the services of an accounting firm, Junkermier, Clark, Campanella, Stevens, P.C. (“Junkermier”), to structure the sale of real property to take advantage of favorable tax treatment. It was discovered that Junkermier’s employee misinformed the Cattle Company’s owners of the tax consequences of the sale. The Cattle Company’s owners subsequently filed suit against Junkermier and its employee and alleged nearly $12,000,000 in damages due to the error. Junkermier’s insurer, New York Marine, provided a defense for Junkermier and its employee. The Cattle Company’s owners offered to settle the claims against Junkermier and its employee for $2,000,000, the policy limit of the New York Marine policy. New York Marine refused to give its consent or tender the policy’s limit. Subsequently, Junkermier, its employee, and the Cattle Company entered into their own settlement agreement for $10,000,000. The settlement was contingent upon a reasonableness hearing to approve the stipulated agreement. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of K. Alexandra Byrd, Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C.
Ms. Byrd may be contacted by kab@sdvlaw.com

Naples, Florida, Is Getting So Expensive That City Workers Can’t Afford It

April 10, 2023 — Amanda Albright - Bloomberg
The city of Naples on Florida’s Gulf Coast is paradise on Earth, if you believe those slick websites that rank the best US cities to live in or retire in. But if you talk with the people who work in its hospitals, restaurants and city government, you’ll get another story. They’d like to live in Naples, too, but most of them can’t afford to. The city of 19,000 is home to the second-richest ZIP code in the US, after Miami Beach. Median household income stood at about $125,000 in 2021, compared with about $62,000 in Florida overall, according to the Census Bureau. Naples landed on a 2022 list of least affordable places for renters compiled by the National Apartment Association. Amid a dearth of reasonably priced housing, at least 90% of city employees live outside Naples. Job vacancies are going unfilled, leading to chronic staffing shortages. The shortfall among firefighters, police officers and other essential workers in Collier County, which includes Naples, verges on unsafe, according to one local advocate. Private-sector employers have converted a hotel into apartments for workers as a temporary fix. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Amanda Albright, Bloomberg

Fannie-Freddie Propose Liquidity Rules for Mortgage Insurers

July 16, 2014 — Clea Benson and Zachary Tracer – Bloomberg
Ms. Benson may be contacted at cbenson20@bloomberg.net; Mr. Tracer may be contacted at ztracer1@bloomberg.net Private mortgage insurers looking to do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have to hold minimum amounts of liquid assets under standards proposed by the companies and their regulator. To back loans packaged into securities by the U.S.-owned mortgage-finance giants, insurers would have to hold liquid assets worth at least 5.6 percent of their risk exposure, and possibly more depending on the quality of the loans they cover, according to the proposal released today by the companies and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. “Mortgage insurance counterparties must be able to fulfill their intended role of providing private capital, even in adverse market conditions,” FHFA Director Melvin L. Watt said in an e-mailed statement. Ms. Benson may be contacted at cbenson20@bloomberg.net; Mr. Tracer may be contacted at ztracer1@bloomberg.net Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Clea Benson and Zachary Tracer, Bloomberg

Fannie Overseer Moves to Rescue Housing With Lower Risk to Lenders

May 21, 2014 — Kathleen M. Howley – Bloomberg
Melvin Watt, the overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, broke five months of silence to help boost lending as slowing sales threatens the housing recovery. Watt, 68, in his first speech as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, announced new rules to reduce the risk that lenders will have to repurchase bad mortgages. The changes, designed to allow banks to relax credit standards, probably will increase housing sales by 5 percent this year, said Stephanie Karol, an economist at Englewood, Colorado-based research firm IHS Inc. “It means a restart for the real estate recovery,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Inc. “We’re not going to get back on track until we start making credit more available to potential buyers.” He said he expects Watt’s moves to spur “meaningful” sales growth. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Kathleen M. Howley, Bloomberg
Ms. Howley may be contacted at kmhowley@bloomberg.net

Nevada OSHA Provides Additional Requirements for Construction Employers to Address Feasibility of Social Distancing at Construction Sites

May 04, 2020 — Aaron Lovaas - Newmeyer Dillion
When Nevada’s Governor identified construction as an essential business amid the initial directives of the COVID-19 state of emergency, the executive order required construction employers to “maintain strict social distancing practices to facilitate a minimum of six feet of separation between workers.” Now, nearly a month later, Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recognized that strict social distancing measures are not always practical or feasible among workers on an active construction site. On April 20, 2020, Nevada OSHA issued revised guidelines addressing ongoing construction activity when social distancing cannot practically be maintained. The guidelines continue to emphasize that safety and training meetings, tailgate talks, and similar gatherings must be restricted to 10 people or less. Additionally, the employer remains responsible for monitoring employees on lunch breaks, slack periods and in employee parking areas to ensure compliance with social distancing protocols. Read the court decision
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Reprinted courtesy of Aaron Lovaas, Newmeyer Dillion
Mr. Lovaas may be contacted at aaron.lovaas@ndlf.com

Colorado Adopts Twombly-Iqbal “Plausibility” Standard

July 14, 2016 — Jesse Howard Witt – The Witt Law Firm Blog, Acerbic Witt
Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court announced a dramatic shift in its rules of pleading, adopting the federal courts’ requirement that a claim must be “plausible on its face” to survive a motion to dismiss. Although seemingly subtle, this change transfers much more power to district court judges and weakens the right to a jury in civil actions. For decades in Colorado, courts have held that a plaintiff’s complaint need merely provide a defendant with notice of the transaction that caused an alleged injury. Judges would not dismiss the complaint unless it appeared “beyond doubt” that the plaintiff could prove “no set of facts” which would entitle him or her to relief. See Davidson v. Dill, 180 Colo. 123, 131, 503 P.2d 157, 162 (1972), quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41 (1957). This was rooted in the notion that the civil jury was the ultimate arbiter of disputed facts in American jurisprudence. Every party was entitled to have his or her “day in court” and present claims to a group of jurors selected from the community, rather than a judge appointed by the governor. Reprinted courtesy of Jesse Howard Witt, Acerbic Witt Mr. Witt welcomes comments at www.witt.law Read the full story... Read the court decision
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