Cozen O’Connor’s Subrogation & Recovery team and National Subrogation Services are pleased to announce Subro on the Go, a podcast hosted by Joe Rich and Dave Brisco that spotlights trending legal, technological, and claims handling issues in today’s fast-moving subrogation world. The cause of plumbing component losses is not always readily apparent during an initial...
This recurring series will discuss various materials, including engineered plastics, woods, metals, polymers, bio-polymers, and other composites, and evaluate real world failure modes and provide practice tips for the recovery professional. The first material discussed is cellulose insulation. Cellulose is an organic material derived from wood, and commonly used in the building industry to insulate. Cellulose...
Thirteen fires and more than one million dollars in property damage have been caused by LG Dehumidifiers, prompting a recall. The Goldstar GHD30Y7, Goldstar DH305Y7 and Comfort-Aire BHD-301-C dehumidifiers are all included in the recall. The recalled units are distributed through The Home Depot, Walmart, Ace Hardware, Do It Best, Orgill and other nationwide retailers from January...
In March, we discussed the importance of pleading common law duties separate and distinct from a builder’s contractual duties in order to preserve tort-based construction defect actions under Michigan law. In its opinion released June 6, 2011, the Michigan Supreme Court recently reinforced but fine-tuned this advice in Loweke v. Ann Arbor Ceiling & Partition...
Tort claims arising from construction defects often falter in the looming presence of a contract. The existence of a contract is particularly challenging for the plaintiff who is not in contractual privity with the defendant. Under Michigan law, the distinction between duties owed by a contractor arising from a contract and those arising in the...
Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride ("CPVC") has been used in potable water distribution systems since the 1960s. More recently, CPVC has been used in high rise fire suppression piping systems. Within the last decade, failures in these systems have been identified raising questions as to (1) the appropriateness of CPVC and (2) the suitability of CPVC when mated with steel piping. ...
While plastics have forever changed the way we live, the story isn’t always as rosy as the American Chemistry Council infers in the quoted slogan. Introduced in 1956, acetal (also known as polyacetal, polyformadehyde or polyoxymethlene) was developed for high stiffness, low friction and stability. This material was successfully used in the manufacture of automotive...
Michigan appeared to join those states barring a landlord’s subrogee from suing a tenant in the case of New Hampshire Insurance Group v. Labombard, 155 Mich. App 369, 375 (1986). There, the court held that a tenant is an implied co-insured in every lease, unless “expressly and unequivocal’ stated otherwise. But recent decisions give a...
