Declarations – Midwest

A Taking Is a Taking

“It doesn’t matter if it’s one time or five times, if you intentionally damage someone’s property — which is what the Corps did here — it’s a taking. … The case law bears that out.”

—Cape Girardeau, Mo., attorney J. Michael Ponder, comments on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ request for dismissal of a lawsuit brought on behalf of more than 140 southeast Missouri farmers over damage caused by the corps’ 2011 intentional breach of the Birds Point levee at the height of spring flooding. Ponder is representing the farmers in the lawsuit. AP

Need to Know

“The best agents and brokers are doing the same thing. …They’re saying what I need to invest in is areas of expertise. I’ve got to know things like not-for-profits or healthcare or whatever it is.”

—Frederick Eppinger, CEO of Worcester, Mass.-based Hanover Insurance Group. In an interview with Insurance Journal, Eppinger commented that agents in all parts of the country are concluding that “just being generic” is not the way to be successful; rather they are saying “to really be the most successful my folks, my producers, have to know things.”

No New Money Stream

“The legislation brings common-sense changes, so that co-employee liability and occupational disease can be handled by our workers’ compensation system, as has been the case for decades, and not be used as a new money stream for enterprising trial attorneys.”

—Missouri Chamber President and CEO Daniel Mehan praised the state Senate’s override of Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill that would change workers’ compensation laws by barring some lawsuits over workplace injuries. AP