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PQA’s Denise O’Hara files suit on behalf of Lake Como residents challenging zoning for 530′ radio tower
PQA Attorney Denise O’Hara filed suit on behalf of the Concerned Citizens of Lake Como to challenge the Borough’s recent zoning ordinance that would permit the construction of a 530′ radio transmission tower and related buildings, which General Media seeks to build in the Borough’s Green Acres-funded Behrman Park. The ordinance purports to permit telecommunication towers up to 550-feet to be built in the zone where Behrman Park is located, and also provides that such towers can only be built on public property. The stated purpose of that provision is to enable the Borough of Lake Como to profit from lease payments General Media would have to pay for the use of park land on which General Media would build its tower. O’Hara, who is a resident of Lake Como and whose home backs up to Behrman Park, had previously spoke in opposition to the proposed tower at the June 21, 2011 “scoping hearing” held by the Mayor and Council of Lake Como at which General Media presented its plan. The scoping hearing is part of the “pre-application” process required when a portion of a Green Acres-funded park is sought to be diverted for certain commercial purposes.
When the Mayor and Council did not withdraw their plan following the objections of dozens of residents at the scoping hearing and in written comments, O’Hara filed a motion on behalf of the citizens group to intervene in a pending prerogative writ action previously filed by the Borough of Spring Lake, whose Marucci Park adjoins the proposed location of the mammoth tower. Both complaints challenge the zoning on multiple grounds, including that the Borough failed to provide proper notice as required by the Municipal Land Use Law, and that the ordinance constitutes improper spot zoning and financial zoning.
PQA Attorneys win important procedural victory before New Jersey Supreme Court
PQA attorneys helped win an important procedural victory on May 10, 2011, when the New Jersey Supreme Court granted the petition for certification in the matter of Selective Insurance Co. of America v. Hudson East Pain Management Osteopathic Medicine and Physical Therapy. In granting the petition, the Court agreed to hear an appeal from a decision in which an Appellate Division panel had severely limited the ability of insurers to investigate insurance claims involving healthcare providers.
PQA attorneys had filed a motion with the Supreme Court on behalf of the Insurance Council of New Jersey (“ICNJ”) and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (“PCI”) seeking leave to appear jointly as amicus curiae and submitted a brief on behalf of the insurance industry urging the Court to grant the petition for certification. ICNJ is a nonprofit, insurance, research, information and advocacy organization representing twenty-two New Jersey licensed property casualty insurance companies that collectively write 93 percent of the automobile insurance policies in New Jersey. ICNJ member companies underwrote the great majority of the nearly $17 billion in direct premiums written in New Jersey in 2009. PCI is a trade group representing more than 1,000 property casualty insurance companies domiciled and transacting business throughout the United States. Its member companies write nearly 49.5 percent of the nation’s auto insurance business.
PQA’s brief on behalf of ICNJ and PCI outlined the ways in which New Jersey automobile insurers’ long-standing ability to investigate personal injury protection (“PIP”) fraud schemes, including unlawful self-referral schemes, kickback arrangements, fee-splitting schemes, and unlawful practice structure schemes, would be crippled if the Appellate Division decision were allowed to stand. In urging the Supreme Court to hear the appeal, PQA’s brief further explained why the unfortunate but inevitable effects of allowing the Appellate Division decision to stand would be an increase in insurance fraud and abuse, and rising premium costs that will be borne by New Jersey private passenger automobile policy holders .
ICNJ and PCI’s application and brief in support of the petition for certification was prepared and submitted by PQA attorneys Kenneth E. Pringle and Denise O’Hara of PQA’s Belmar office, and Lisa R. Levine, of PQA’s Trenton office.
PQA Wins $9.7 Million Judgment Against Chiropractor and Ten Fraudulent Medical Offices
On March 30, 2011, PQA obtained final summary judgment on behalf of Allstate Insurance Company against a New Jersey chiropractor and a network of ten fraudulent medical offices he created and secretly controlled. The chiropractor created these sham medical corporations in response to the New Jersey Legislature’s adoption of the Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act (AICRA), P.L.1998 c.21., which sought to curb abuses by chiropractors and other healthcare providers. Finding that the chiropractor had engaged in a pattern of fraud as defined by the New Jersey Insurance Fraud Prevention Act, NJSA 17:33A-1, et al. the Court awarded treble damages against the chiropractor personally in the amount of $9,770,126.13. New Jersey healthcare regulations prohibit chiropractors from employing medical doctors. In reaching his decision, the Honorable Robert J. Brennan, J.S.C. found that the chiropractor hired medical doctors to pose as owners of medical practices which the chiropractor in fact owned and controlled so that he could unlawfully profit from procedures they performed on his patients. Additionally, the Court found that the chiropractor illegally employed medical doctors to test patients and to recommend continued treatment by the chiropractor.
The motion was decided on remand from the Appellate Division following an earlier 2006 decision in Allstate’s favor by a different Morris County Superior Court judge. In addition to the judgment, the chiropractor will be required to pay additional damages in the amount of three times Allstate’s reasonably attorneys’ fees and costs. Kenneth Pringle Esq., Kathleen Waldron, Esq. and Denise O’Hara Esq. litigated the case, which began in 2002.
Pringle to moderate panel at 2011 ISO Insurance Fraud Manager’s Conference
PQA Partner Ken Pringle will moderate a panel that will discuss Anti-Fraud Strategy Development at the 2011 Insurance Fraud Manager’s Conference sponsored by the Insurance Services Organization (“ISO”), a subsidiary of Verisk Analytics.
The panel discussion will center on finding a path to a sustainable strategy for the industry in resisting insurance fraud. The panel will look at the challenges the industry faces with its current anti-fraud efforts and strategies, and discuss how the industry can best overcome these challenges over the next ten years. Panel members include Dennis Jay, of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud; Glenn Wolf, Manager of the Special Investigation Unit for the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company; and Ross Silverman, Esquire, a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP of Chicago, IL.
PQA’s Waldron wins judgment against defendant under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act
On August 25, 2010, the Honorable Mary C. Jacobson, Presiding Judge of the Superior Court for Mercer County, entered an order finding that the transfer of a home by a chiropractor to his mother, constituted a fraudulent transaction under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, N.J.S.A. 25:2-20, et seq (the “UFTA”). The Court also ordered that PQA may file a new application for relief under the UFTA, and may apply for a final judgment up to the $525,000 amount of the value of the home that the defendant unlawfully conveyed, as well as its attorneys’ fees and costs, once the amount of the damages the defendant owes to PQA’s client is established at the conclusion of parallel proceedings that are pending in another court pursuant to the New Jersey Insurance Fraud Prevention Act, N.J.S.A. 17:33A-1, et seq.
The UFTA motion was successfully briefed and argued by PQA Associate Kathleen Waldron. Discovery in this litigation, which included a series of third-party subpoenas to obtain the bank accounts of the defendant and his mother, and the records of the mortgage lender and broker involved in the transaction, was handled by PQA Associate Denise O’Hara.