Implied Covenants of Good Faith and Fair Dealing: Loose Cannons of Liability for Financial Institutions?

The recent willingness of many courts and juries to impose liability on financial institutions has prompted an increasing number of customers to bring suits against their banks and creditors. These suits often involve claims for millions of dollars in both compensatory and punitive damages for alleged bank or creditor misconduct. For example, the Sixth Circuit recently affirmed a jury award of seven and one half million dollars to a borrower whose lender suddenly refused to advance funds under a line of credit agreement. In similar cases involving a bank\u27s refusal to lend money under credit agreements, a California jury awarded approximately twenty-two million dollars in actual and punitive damages to an aggrieved borrower and a Maine jury awarded fifteen million dollars in compensatory damages to a borrower. One reason for the increasing number of awards in suits against financial institutions is the expansion of bases for liability in situations involving banks and creditors. Both the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC or Code) and extensive federal banking regulations provide specific forms of redress for borrowers, debtors,and bank customers. In addition, traditional legal theories such as breach of contract, fraud, and duress are available in actions against financial institutions. The new generation of suits against banks and creditors combine reliance on traditional legal theories with allegations based on innovative or emerging theories of liability. The plaintiffs in a recent case, for example, not only charged their bank with fraud, but also claimed damages for breach of fiduciary obligation and excessive interference with the business of the debtor

The state of Florida's estuaries and future needs in estuarine research: Part 2. an academic research agenda (review draft)

As a program supporting academic research that addresses recognized societal needs, the Florida Sea Grant Program is developing a research theme area on estuaries to provide a uniquely academic product that will augment mission-oriented research undertaken by government and by the private sector. This report is not a call for proposals. It does not prescribe a specific research plan. Rather, it is a concept paper designed to focus research on two broad "organizing themes": (1) the hydrology of Florida's estuaries, and (2) the impact of cyclic environmental variability on estuarine function. (46pp.

Comparison of Indices Proposed as Criteria for Assigning Skin Notation

Objectives: Skin notations are used as a hazard identification tool to flag chemicals associated with a potential risk related to transdermal penetration. The transparency and rigorousness of the skin notation assignment process have recently been questioned. We compared different approaches proposed as criteria for these notations as a starting point for improving and systematizing current practice. Methods: In this study, skin notations, dermal acute lethal dose 50 in mammals (LD50s) and two dermal risk indices derived from previously published work were compared using the lists of Swiss maximum allowable concentrations (MACs) and threshold limit values (TLVs) from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). The indices were both based on quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) estimation of transdermal fluxes. One index compared the cumulative dose received through skin given specific exposure surface and duration to that received through lungs following inhalation 8 h at the MAC or TLV. The other index estimated the blood level increase caused by adding skin exposure to the inhalation route at kinetic steady state. Dermal-to-other route ratios of LD50 were calculated as secondary indices of dermal penetrability. Results: The working data set included 364 substances. Depending on the subdataset, agreement between the Swiss and ACGIH skin notations varied between 82 and 87%. Chemicals with a skin notation were more likely to have higher dermal risk indices and lower dermal LD50 than chemicals without a notation (probabilities between 60 and 70%). The risk indices, based on cumulative dose and kinetic steady state, respectively, appeared proportional up to a constant independent of chemical-specific properties. They agreed well with dermal LD50s (Spearman correlation coefficients −0.42 to −0.43). Dermal-to-other routes LD50 ratios were moderately associated with QSAR-based transdermal fluxes (Spearman correlation coefficients −0.2 to −0.3). Conclusions: The plausible but variable relationship between current skin notations and the different approaches tested confirm the need to improve current skin notations. QSAR-based risk indices and dermal toxicity data might be successfully integrated in a systematic alternative to current skin notations for detecting chemicals associated with potential dermal risk in the workplac

Risk factors for highly pathogenic avian influenza in commercial layer chicken farms in Bangladesh During 2011

postprintA case control study was conducted during 2011 involved 90 randomly selected commercial layer farms infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza type A subtype H5N1 (HPAI) and 175 control farms randomly selected from within 5km of infected farms. A questionnaire was designed to obtain information about potential risk factors for contracting HPAI and was administered to farm owners or managers. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify significant risk factors. A total of 20/43 risk factors for contracting HPAI were identified after univariable logistic regression analysis. A multivariable logistic regression model was derived by forward stepwise selection. Both unmatched and matched analyses were done. The key risk factors identified were numbers of staff, frequency of veterinary visits, presence of village chickens roaming on the farm and staff trading birds. Aggregating these findings with those from other studies resulted in a list of 16 key risk factors identified in Bangladesh. Most of these related to biosecurity. It is considered feasible for Bangladesh to achieve a very low incidence of HPAI. Using the cumulative list of risk factors to enhance biosecurity pertaining to commercial farms would facilitate this objective. Key words: Avian influenza; case-control study; logistic regression; risk factors, observational studies

Risk factors for highly pathogenic avian influenza in commercial layer chicken farms in Bangladesh During 2011

A case control study was conducted during 2011 involved 90 randomly selected commercial layer farms infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza type A subtype H5N1 (HPAI) and 175 control farms randomly selected from within 5km of infected farms. A questionnaire was designed to obtain information about potential risk factors for contracting HPAI and was administered to farm owners or managers. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify significant risk factors. A total of 20/43 risk factors for contracting HPAI were identified after univariable logistic regression analysis. A multivariable logistic regression model was derived by forward stepwise selection. Both unmatched and matched analyses were done. The key risk factors identified were numbers of staff, frequency of veterinary visits, presence of village chickens roaming on the farm and staff trading birds. Aggregating these findings with those from other studies resulted in a list of 16 key risk factors identified in Bangladesh. Most of these related to biosecurity. It is considered feasible for Bangladesh to achieve a very low incidence of HPAI. Using the cumulative list of risk factors to enhance biosecurity pertaining to commercial farms would facilitate this objective. Key words: Avian influenza; case-control study; logistic regression; risk factors, observational studies