CASE BRIEFS
August 26, 2003
Highlights of the latest insurance cases from around the country.
Hacker Attack: Data Loss Considered Covered Property Under First-Party Policy
August 26, 2003
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has recently weighed in on the applicability of standard-form, first-party property policies to the loss of computer data, finding such data loss resulting from a hacker attack by a former employee of the insured to be covered property damage. <i>NMS Services, Inc. v. The Hartford,</i> No. 01-2491, 2003 WL 1904413 (4th Cir., April 21, 2003)
Insurance Company Insolvencies: A Primer for Corporate Policy Holders
August 26, 2003
The past several years have seen some major property-casualty insurance companies on the ropes and worse, far worse. Home Indemnity Company and Legion Insurance Company, two notable insolvency casualties, have left their policyholders without the full protection paid for and required. Sadly, they pale in comparison to the train wreck that is Reliance Insurance Company. The demise of Reliance has had repercussions for insurance buyers and others all over. Once a fixture in the directors' and officers' ('D&O') liability insurance marketplace, among other insurance markets, Reliance is now well underway in the liquidation process, after a brief and unsuccessful attempt at 'rehabilitation.' The Reliance debacle has left policyholders scrambling to protect themselves while state insurance departments wrangle with one another in an attempt to snap up a share of the inadequate pool of assets left behind in the collapse of Reliance.
On the Web
August 26, 2003
Web sites of interest to you and your practice.
Cases in Court
August 26, 2003
Recent rulings of importance to your practice.
Congress vs 'Defensive Medicine'
August 26, 2003
Due to the rising cost of 'defensive medicine,' the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation to limit or ban punitive damages in product liability lawsuits over injuries allegedly caused by FDA-approved products.
Move Over Letterman: Top Ten List of Mistakes by Franchise Filers
August 26, 2003
Dale Cantone, deputy securities commissioner in the Securities Division of the Maryland Attorney General's Office, is the supervisor of the state's reviewers of franchise registration applications. At the recent International Franchise Association Legal Symposium, Cantone offered the following as his 'Top Ten' list of mistakes that he sees from filers of franchise applications.
The Madrid Protocol
August 26, 2003
The Madrid Protocol has established a relatively new international trademark registry in Geneva, Switzerland, managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Trademark applications can be filed in one office in one language for protection in many countries, rather than in the individual trademark offices and various languages of the desired countries. There are currently approximately 60 member countries that accept these applications.
New Federal Overtime Laws May Be Pay Dirt for Franchise Employees
August 26, 2003
For years, franchisors and franchisees alike have assumed that most of their 'managers' are exempt from federal (and parallel state) wage-and-hour 'overtime' rules requiring payment of wages calculated at the standard rate multiplied by 150% of the hours worked over 40 hours per week. But a recent flurry of class action lawsuits challenging the classification of certain categories of employees (for example, franchised restaurant or hotel unit managers or shift supervisors) as exempted 'management' employees who are not entitled to 'time-and-a-half' overtime pay has brought this issue under close scrutiny. Plaintiffs are winning many of these cases, sometimes with huge recoveries for employees who worked many hours of uncompensated, or compensated but at straight time, overtime. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) jumped into the arena with proposed revisions to long-standing federal rules under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that define who is and who is not entitled to overtime pay for hours over 40 per week.
