We explore and analyze current issues and relevant topics to help accountants, attorneys, architects and engineers, insurance agents and real estate brokers avoid a professional liability case.
In Ferguson v. Aon Risk Servs. Co., the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted Defendants’ (collectively, “Aon”) motion for summary judgment based on Plaintiffs’ lack of standing as third-party beneficiaries and failure to file within the statute of limitations.
In Allied Design Consultants, Inc. v. Pekin Ins. Co. the Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court recently affirmed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment finding the allegations in multiple personal injury lawsuits fell under the professional services exclusion included in the plaintiff’s insurance policy, and thus, the insurer was not required to defend the plaintiff in the lawsuit. 2024 IL App (4th) 4230738 (May 23, 2024).
An Ohio court recently confirmed the scope of a duty in professional relationships with agents under a durable power of attorney. A decision last December of the Court of Appeals of Ohio confirms that where a third-party professional assists an agent acting under a durable power of attorney, the professional’s duty of care runs not to the agent in his or her individual capacity, but to the agent only in the fiduciary capacity, that is, through the agent to the principal. Hull v. Polous, 2023 Ohio App. LEXIS 4320; 2023 WL 8613552.