A landowner who uses a portion of his neighbor's property without permission is a trespasser. An exception to this general rule occurs when the trespasser's use of his neighbor's property meets the legal requirements of a prescriptive easement, or the legal right…
Under a new Oregon law, effective January 1, 2016, additional protections have been added to the current state law that restricts employer access to employees' and employment applicants' personal password-protected social media accounts. Under the new law, employers cannot require…
For the first time in a published decision, a California Court of Appeal has squarely held that insurance appraisers must resolve disagreements over the scope of repair and cannot merely price the competing scopes submitted by the policyholder and the…
In Queen Anne Park Homeowners Ass'n v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., the Washington Supreme Court held that the term "collapse," when left undefined in a first-party property insurance policy, includes "substantial impairment of structural integrity" ("SISI"). The case involved…
The US Supreme Court is in the news nearly every day. But not for having decided an admiralty case. Lately, it has been a rare occurrence for that court to decide an admiralty case. There is no statute dictating which…
Well another (full – every two years) Oregon legislative session is in full-throttle, and once again policyholder advocates have failed to advance any meaningful insurance "bad faith" legislation. As you are probably aware, Oregon is the only remaining state out…
License to Landscape: A property owner's longstanding and substantial landscape improvements to a roadway easement on his neighbor's property results in an irrevocable license, granting him a permanent right to continue to improve and maintain the landscaping along the roadway…
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently issued another decision holding that the purported "any exposure" or "each and every fiber" theory is not sufficient to establish causation in cases alleging exposure to asbestos. In Nelson v. Airco Welders Supply, et al.,…
Monday, March 02, 2015 Loren Podwill Multnomah Lawyer Bullivant was featured in the March 2015 issue of Multnomah Bar Association's monthly newsletter for our partnership with Worksystems, Inc. and their SummerWorks program. Visit the link below to hear more from…
For several months, West Coast ports have suffered work slowdowns. Carriers and cargo owners have attributed the resulting port congestion to the longshore union's strategy in negotiating a new contract. The longshore union denies employing such strategy and attributes the…