Kelly Sullivan was successful in her defense of Abington Township’s outdoor advertising ordinances which were challenged by MC Outdoor. MC Outdoor’s Petition for Allowance of Appeal was recently denied by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. To view a .pdf of the appeal denial, and to learn more about Kelly Sullivan please view the links below.
The Third Circuit has held that a new employer may be held liable for their predecessor’s violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). See the Third Circuit Opinion may be found at Thompson v. Real Estate Mortgage Network, 748 F.3d 142 (2014).
Thompson v. Real Estate Mortgage Network, 748 F.3d 142 (2014)
The 4th Circuit has ruled that employers may be liable for third party harassment of its employees in the attached decision.
In the world of water and sewage, there are three general types of systems.
A water system is for drinking water. Raw water is taken from a collection point (for example, a river, a lake or an underground aquifer) and is transferred using aqueducts, covered tunnels or water pipes to a water purification facility where the raw water is treated. The treated water may be stored for a time in reservoirs, water tanks or water towers. The treated water is transported as needed through pipes to homes, businesses and fire hydrants.
A sewer system or sanitary sewer system takes wastewater from homes (such as water from sinks, toilets and washers) and from businesses and transports it through sewer pipes to a treatment plant, where it is treated. The treated water is released into a river or other body of water.
A third type of system is a stormwater system, which collects rainwater and snow runoff from streets, roads, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, farms and other properties. The stormwater travels through a drainage system, which can include public streets, gutters, catch basins, storm pipes, retention basins and channels, and is released into a river or other body of water.
The old method of dealing with stormwater was to direct it into the sewer system and have it run through the sewage treatment plant. This is obviously not the optimal way to deal with stormwater. The modern method is to create a separate stormwater system, and not just direct the stormwater into a river, but to try to get as much of the stormwater as possible to be absorbed into the ground. This decreases both the chances of flooding and the flushing of chemicals or other pollutants into the river. The key is to encourage the development of permeable surfaces, even in developed areas, so that most of the stormwater is absorbed into the soil.
Many water systems and sewer systems in Pennsylvania are operated by municipal authorities organized by municipalities under the Municipality Authorities Act, 53 Pa.Cons.Stat. Ch. 56. The act and its predecessor statutes have been around for more than 70 years. Because the language of the act referred only to water systems and sewer systems, there was some confusion about whether stormwater systems could be operated by municipal authorities under the act. As a result, the General Assembly enacted Act 68 of 2013 to specifically provide that………….
Article by Leslie Krowchenko, DelcoTimes.com Correspondent.
SPRINGFIELD — Four years after rendering its first unanimous decision, the zoning board again voted 5-0 Thursday night to deny the installation of billboards along Baltimore Pike.
The Bartkowski Investment Group sought permission to mount five back-to-back billboards in the 100, 500 and 800 blocks of the street. The sixth sign from the initial application, slated for the 700 block, was withdrawn.
The request was accompanied by a seventh application from BIG under the name Delaware County Outdoor to install a billboard in the 1400 block of the highway between the exit from Springfield Mall and the entrance to Extra Space Storage. While the original applications specified the signs would be 672 square feet, the new ones did not indicate a size.
BIG appealed the March 2010 zoning decision in Delaware County Common Pleas Court, which upheld the board’s ruling and affirmed the township’s right to ban billboards completely. The company then appealed the lower court decision to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, which ruled the board was within its rights to determine the proposed sites were not suitable for billboards, but overstepped in excluding them entirely from the township.
If you are charged with chairing a meeting for your local charitable organization, boys or girls club, or any other group, it would be wise to establish a process for those meetings. Written Rules of Order, guided by parliamentary procedure could both enhance the quality of your meetings and save you time.
The attached article from the Pennsylvania Township News provides a primer on parliamentary procedures utilized by local municipalities in Pennsylvania.
The lawyers at McNichol, Byrne, and Matlawski are very familiar with the Rules of Parliamentary Procedures and can help you in preparing a set of rules to fit your organization’s needs. To learn more about McNichol, Byrne, at Matlawski, P.C., visit our website at www.mbmlawoffice.com or our social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
It has been a busy year for Jim Byrne of McNichol, Byrne & Matlawski. Byrne, who handles cases ranging from land use to personal injury has spent the summer educating the Pennsylvania legislature and local government officials about constitutional rights regarding outdoor advertising; has teamed up with the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce to educate local business owners about the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as “ObamaCare”; and has been named a mediator by the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators.
BYRNE, A LEARNED PROFESSIONAL IN OUTDOOR ADVERTISING
In recent years, outdoor media companies have increasingly sought to construct billboards along major traffic routes in Southeastern Pennsylvania townships. Many of these townships have prohibited the construction of outdoor advertising, and outdoor media and advertising companies have challenged the constitutionality of such bans on the introduction of such media outlets in these municipalities.
Byrne has advocated on behalf of numerous townships whose outdoor advertising policies have been challenged in the Greater Philadelphia Area including municipalities in Montgomery and Delaware Counties. Having been recognized as a leading advocate in the Philadelphia area, Byrne was invited to make three presentations over the course of the year to discuss the constitutionality of outdoor advertising and the issues which municipalities face.
First, Byrne spoke in the State Capital of Pennsylvania about municipalities’ rights to maintain policies prohibiting and limiting outdoor advertising because municipalities have the authority to enforce such policies when the outdoor advertising has an effect on aesthetics, and public safety, health and welfare. Following Byrne’s presentation to the Pennsylvania legislature, Byrne was invited to speak in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI) about the general issues being faced by the municipalities and the outdoor media companies. Most recently, Byrne returned to Lancaster to speak with the First Class Township Commissioners Association about the ways in which they can combat outdoor media companies by drafting ordinances that effectively, yet constitutionally limit or prohibit undesirable outdoor advertising.
A DISCUSSION ABOUT OBAMACARE & SMALL BUSINESSES IN DELAWARE COUNTY
As all United States businesses undergo changes in healthcare policies due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as “ObamaCare,” many small business owners have questions about the effects of such legislation on their business. Byrne was invited by the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce to speak with these concerned small business owners of Delaware County about the legislation’s effects and what policies they should introduce within their companies in order to comply with the new law.
Although Byrne’s presentation was informative, he encourages small business owners to seek legal counsel to discuss policies which their company should specifically implement and what effects the legislation will specifically have on their small business.
THE BENEFITS OF MEDIATION
In deciding legal disputes, most parties often first consider resolution by means of the judicial system, but mediation is a way to decide legal disputes with some benefits that the court system cannot guarantee. Mediation may be a more desirable means of resolving a legal dispute because mediation is generally less expensive than litigation through the courts, decisions made through the mediation process are typically more timely than decisions made by the courts, the parties are able to choose their mediators unlike being assigned a judge, and there is a high rate of compliance to the decision made by the mediators by parties.
Byrne, who often acts as an arbitrator, has recently completed mediator training and has been named a mediator with the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators. He has recently begun scheduling mediations for the upcoming months.
McNichol, Byrne & Matlawski, P.C. is a general practice law firm located in Media, Pennsylvania. Our attorneys have expertise in many areas of law, from land use and zoning, to personal injury, employment, civil and criminal litigation, to corporate/commercial and business transactions.
Whatever your legal services need, we have the qualified and talented professionals who can help you. Our current clients range from governmental bodies, townships, zoning hearing boards, corporations, home builders and developers, private business owners, public and private employers, to individuals with various legal needs.
