SGRV Member Nancy Abrams Secures Dismissal in her Client’s Favor

By SGR May 15, 2024

Spector Gadon Rosen Vinci P.C. Member Nancy Abrams, with the assistance of SGRV Associate Kristen Over, was successful in obtaining an order granting the motion to dismiss they filed in Kirkpatrick Price, Inc. v. Clone Systems, Inc. Her client Clone, which operates solely in Pennsylvania, had entered into a contract with Kirkpatrick, which is located in Florida, that Kirkpatrick alleged Clone had breached. Ms. Abrams argued that the contract specifically provided that all services Clone provided to Kirkpatrick were to be performed in Pennsylvania and that Clone did not do business in Florida or have sufficient contacts with Florida for the courts there to have personal jurisdiction over Clone.

After a deposition of Clone’s representative was taken, Kirkpatrick filed an Amended Complaint and Ms. Abrams filed a second motion to dismiss. The motion was fully briefed by both sides and argued by Ms. Over, after which the court agreed that it did not have jurisdiction over Clone and dismissed the case.

For more than 40 years, Nancy Abrams has concentrated her legal practice in the areas of labor and employment law. She has significant experience in traditional labor and employment-related issues involving private industry and the nursing home industry and has worked with many management teams in the manufacturing, health care, and service industries.

Kristen Over focuses her practice on civil litigation and criminal defense. She represents nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and healthcare providers in complex litigation, represents insurance companies and businesses in labor and employment issues, and defends individuals against allegations of criminal law violations.

Spector Gadon Rosen Vinci P.C. has represented clients nationally and internationally for nearly 50 years and provides counsel and expertise across the entire spectrum of legal practice, from complex litigation to sophisticated transactional and corporate matters. The firm has offices in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Florida, and New York.

DOL And IRS Extend Cobra Timeframes

By Nancy Abrams May 6, 2020

On May 4, the Department of Labor and IRS jointly published a Rule entitled “Extension of Certain Timeframes for Employee Benefit Plans, Participants, and Beneficiaries Affected by the COVID-19 Outbreak.” The final rule extends most COBRA deadlines to beyond the “Outbreak Period,” which it defines as March 1, 2020, to 60 days after the end of the declared COVID-10 national emergency, or another date if provided by the agencies in future guidance (i.e., if the emergency declaration expires on June 29, 2020, the Outbreak Period will end on August 28, 2020).

The rule extends various COBRA deadlines as follows:

The COBRA election period. Under COBRA, employees and dependents who lose active coverage as a result of a qualifying event, such as termination of employment or reduction of hours, normally have 60 days to elect continuation coverage after receiving a COBRA election notice. Under the rule, the 60-day timeframe doesn’t start to run until the end of the Outbreak Period.
The COBRA premium payment period. COBRA enrollees normally have 45 days from their COBRA election to make the first premium payment, and subsequent monthly payments must be made within a 30-day grace period that starts at the beginning of each coverage month. Under the new rule, the initial premium payment and grace period don’t start to run until the end of the Outbreak Period.
The date for individuals to notify the plan of a qualifying event or determination of disability. Normally an individual has 60 days to inform a plan administrator of a qualifying event (i.e., a divorce or a child reaching the age of 26). Under the new rule, the 60 day period does not start to run until the end of the Outbreak Period.

Deadlines for individuals to file a benefit claim, to file an appeal of adverse benefit determination under the plan’s claims procedure, and to file a request for an external review after receipt of an adverse benefit determination were similarly extended.

Note, however, that no extension was granted for the 14-day deadline for plan administrators to furnish COBRA election notices after a qualifying event has occurred.

Under the new rule, employers must permit an employee or beneficiary to elect COBRA coverage even if more than 60 days has passed since the employee or beneficiary lost coverage under the employer’s health plan. In addition, an employer cannot terminate an employee’s COBRA coverage for failure to pay premiums during the “Outbreak Period,” which may result in the employer paying for the employee’s coverage.

If you have any questions, please contact Nancy Abrams at nabrams@sgrvlaw.com or (215) 241-8894.

Moving Through COVID-19 Traffic Stops

By Jennifer Chalal April 14, 2020

You know that your business is “life sustaining” – and entitled to remain open despite the “stay at home” order which now restricts business in all of Pennsylvania – because you checked the latest version of the order at (https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200401-GOV-Statewide-Stay-at-Home-Order.pdf)
(The list of such businesses – already updated several times – is online at https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6816337/452553026-UPDATED-Industry-Operation-Guidance.pdf. Pennsylvania’s general guidelines are at https://www.pa.gov/guides/responding-to-covid-19/.)

However, the state trooper who sees your employees driving to work probably doesn’t know all those details, and may pull them over.

Although your employees may trust your instruction that they can drive to work safely, can they explain why to a uniformed officer under the pressure of a traffic stop?
So a citation on the way to work may seem inevitable if a trooper sees an employee driving to work – unless, of course, the employee can provide a brief, clear explanation of why the employee can still commute, when most people (including the author of this memo) can’t do so.

On the first day of enforcement of the stay at home order, a client pleaded for help after several of its employees had been detained in a rural county on their way to work.

After investigating the newly adopted rules, however, we recommended that our client’s employees carry a portable, one page explanation of why its employees were allowed to work and commute, complete with citations to the list of permitted businesses.

We also recommend our client’s suggestion, that its commuting employees carry a pay stub or other proof of employment by its essential business.

(However, you should not assume that the rules our client’s employees faced under Pennsylvania’s stringent rules are what your employees may face in your own location. In addition to checking your local guidelines, the Department of Homeland Security lists “essential critical infrastructure” firms in its Guidance on the “Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce” at https://www.cisa.gov/publication/guidance-essential-critical-infrastructure-workforce#.)
If your business is eligible to remain open during a stay at home order, we can assist you in preparing a letter which may be helpful in avoiding a citation should your employees be stopped while commuting.

Our employment and business law attorneys listed below can help you navigate these issues.

We hope that you and your business weather the COVID-19 storm.

Please contact Nancy Abrams or Jennifer Chalal for employment matters, or Peter Cripps, Joseph Devine or Stanley Jaskiewicz for business matters:

Nancy Abrams 215-241-8894 nabrams@sgrvlaw.com
Jennifer Chalal 215-241-8817 jmyers@sgrvlaw.com
Peter Cripps 215-241-8884 pcripps@sgrvlaw.com
Joseph Devine 215-825-8942 jdevine@sgrvlaw.com
Stanley Jaskiewicz 215-241-8866 sjaskiewicz@sgrvlaw.com

CONGRESS PASSES EXTENSIVE CORNAVIRUS ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL

By Jennifer Chalal March 31, 2020

CONGRESS PASSES EXTENSIVE CORNAVIRUS ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL

Last Friday Congress passed a $2 Trillion Economic Stimulus Bill (the “CARES Act”) that provides for loans to small businesses (under 500 employees) as well as payroll tax credits to encourage employers to continue to pay their employees while their businesses are closed down or curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Information regarding small business loans will be included in another Alert. Key employment-related provisions include:

Unemployment Insurance Provisions

This CARES Act creates a temporary Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program through December 31, 2020 to provide payments to workers displaced as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, and includes payments to those not traditionally eligible for unemployment benefits (self-employed, independent contractors, those with limited work history, and others) who are unable to work as a direct result of the coronavirus public health emergency. The CARES Act also supplements traditional state unemployment insurance and provides an additional $600 per week payment to each recipient of unemployment insurance or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for up to four months. In addition, the CARES Act provides funding to pay the first week of unemployment benefits, permitting states to pay unemployment compensation benefits to recipients as soon as they become unemployed instead of waiting one week before the individual is eligible to receive benefits.

The CARES Act also provides an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits through December 31, 2020 to help those who remain unemployed after the applicable weeks of state unemployment benefits are no longer available (i.e., increasing total weeks of eligibility in Pennsylvania from 26 to 39). Employees whose hours are reduced are eligible for pro-rated unemployment benefits.

Employee Retention Credit For Employers Subject To Closure Due To Covid-19

This provision provides a refundable payroll tax credit for 50 percent of wages paid by employers to employees during the COVID-19 crisis in order to induce employers to retain employees. The credit is available to employers whose (1) operations were fully or partially suspended, due to a COVID-19-related shut-down order, or (2) gross receipts declined by more than 50 percent when compared to the same quarter in the prior year.

The credit is based on qualified wages paid to the employee. For employers with greater than 100 full-time employees, qualified wages are wages paid to employees when they are not providing services due to the COVID-19-related circumstances described above. For eligible employers with 100 or fewer full-time employees, all employee wages qualify for the credit, whether the employer is open for business or subject to a shut-down order. The credit is provided for the first $10,000 of compensation, including health benefits, paid to an eligible employee. The credit is provided for wages paid or incurred from March 13, 2020 through December 31, 2020.

Delay Of Payment Of Employer Payroll Taxes

The CARES Act also allows employers and self-employed individuals to defer payment of the employer share of the Social Security tax they otherwise are responsible for paying to the federal government with respect to their employees. Employers generally are responsible for paying a 6.2 percent Social Security tax on employee wages and must submit those amounts to the IRS quarterly. The provision requires that the deferred employment tax be paid over the following two years, with half of the amount required to be paid by December 31, 2021 and the other half by December 31, 2022. The Social Security Trust Funds will be held harmless under this provision.

Direct Payments To Individual Taxpayers

Under the CARES Act, the Secretary of the Treasury has been directed to provide rebate checks to individual taxpayers in order to stimulate the economy. Individual taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less will receive a $1,200 rebate check, and an additional rebate of $500 per dependent child. Taxpayers filing jointly will receive $2,400 in addition to the $500 per child. The rebates will be proportionally phased out for individual taxpayers with adjusted gross income of $75,000 to $99,000 and for joint filers with adjusted gross income of $150,000 to $198,000. The phase out reduces a taxpayer’s rebate by $5 for each $100 of adjusted gross income in excess of the applicable phase-out thresholds (i.e. $75,000 or $150,000, as the case may be).

We will continue to provide updates to our clients regarding important COVID-19 legislation that affects employers and employees. If you have any questions regarding the foregoing, please contact Jennifer Chalal at jchalal@sgrvlaw.com or Nancy Abrams at nabrams@sgrvlaw.com or Peter Cripps at pcripps@sgrvlaw.com.

FAMILIES FIRST CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE ACT POSTER REQUIREMENT

By Jennifer Chalal March 26, 2020

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act requires that employers inform their employees of their rights under the Act. They have issued an approved poster that must be displayed where the employer displays other employee rights-related posters. If employees are not working in the employer’s place of business, a copy of the poster should be sent to employees by e-mail or regular mail.

Click here to view the Families First Coronavirus Response ActPoster

Category: Nancy