Declarations

California Wildfires

“Homeowners should not have to scramble to find fire insurance while suffering the effects of a wildfire.”

— California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, explaining his order to insurers to preserve residential insurance coverage for the county of Mariposa following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s emergency declaration for wildfires in the area.

Conservative Values

“We felt the conservative customer was slowly being kicked to the side. … There are insurance companies that support and contribute to causes that we wouldn’t necessarily support or give to.”

— Tony Lani, CEO, co-founder and spokesman for insurance agency America First Insurance Group, which claims it is the country’s first conservative insurance group. Lani, a second-generation insurance agent with over 25 years’ experience in the industry, told Insurance Journal that Dallas-based AFIG is “unapologetically conservative” and will serve conservatives’ needs and values.

Victory for Workers

“This was a tremendous victory for Maryland workers. When the boss tells workers to do something, even outside of their regular duties, they are working, and now they will get paid.”

— Brian Markovitz, a principal at the Joseph, Greenwald & Laake law firm, who represented workers seeking unpaid and overtime wages under the Maryland wage and hour law, said of a 7-0 decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals. The court ruled Maryland’s wage and hour law may extend beyond the time an employee spends at a prescribed workspace to include time spent getting to the work site using transportation required by the employer.

ACV Calculations Complaint

“By depreciating labor costs from its ACV calculations throughout Alabama, State Farm has engaged, and continues to engage, in a systematic and unlawful pattern of underpayment of insurance claims.”

— Part of the complaint in a class-action lawsuit filed by Alabama policyholders against State Farm Insurance. The carrier settled the suit for an undisclosed amount in July.

Kickback Suit Hits Impasse

“The government never had any evidence that the alleged kickbacks influenced his decisions.”

— James G. Martin, attorney for Dr. Sonjay Fonn, said the Missouri orthopedic surgeon stood to pay $5.5 million in a kickback lawsuit until a federal appellate court overturned the jury verdict. Fonn is accused in a whistleblower lawsuit of taking kickbacks from a spinal implant distributor owned by his fiancee. An 8th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that improper instructions were given to the jury that found Fonn of Cape Girardeau and distributor Deborah Seeger liable for violations of the federal False Claims Act. The panel said the jury should have been told that the government must show not only that Fonn accepted kickbacks, but also that the payments influenced his decision to use those particular implants.

Hurricane Protection

“The more land I have between me, wherever I’m standing, and the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane is approaching, the better I feel, the better off we are.”

— Bren Haase, executive director of the Louisiana Coastal Preservation and Restoration Authority, which recently oversaw the completion of one of the biggest coastal restoration projects in the state’s history. The authority announced completion of the addition 1,000 acres of habitat to sites in the Terrebonne Basin and about 256 acres of beach and dune and 143 acres of marsh on West Grand Terre Island. Barrier islands and marshes slow storm surge, so the work protects people and buildings on shore while providing habitat for plants and animals.