Law Office of Camron Hoorfar, PC

Following a bench trial, John Meyer appealed a judgment of $205,982.55 plus court costs entered against him in favor of Lynn Schieve. Schieve claimed Meyer, as acting manager of the Carroll Meyer Family Limited Liability Company, breached his fiduciary duty to the LLC members by taking the LLC’s money for his personal use and failed to issue distributions required by the LLC’s operating agreement. The Missouri Court of Appeals-Western District affirmed the judgment.

When a breach of fiduciary duty is asserted in a tort, the plaintiff must establish that (1) a fiduciary duty existed between it and the defendant, (2) the defendant breached the fiduciary duty, and (3) the defendant’s breach of duty caused the plaintiff to experience harm. § 347.088.3 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri codifies a Missouri LLC’s duty of loyalty and prohibits its manager from self-dealings.

The operating agreement would only shield Meyer from liability if he acted in good faith. Since he did not, he was not shielded from liability. Meyer argued the trial court misapplied the law in granting Schieve attorneys’ fees. However, since Schieve was the prevailing party in the suit, she was entitled to attorneys’ fees under § 9.15 of the LLC’s operating agreement, and the trial court was required to award them.

Schieve v. Meyer, 2021 WL 2197406 (Mo. App. W.D. 2021)

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Lonnie Decker filed a petition for wrongful death against Sgt. Dirk Helms and Police Chief Joe Edwards of the De Soto Police Department as well as several other defendants following the death of Decker’s daughter, Lillian Flath. Flath was a passenger in a vehicle who died during an automobile accident during a police pursuit by separate defendant Officer David Krassinger. Helms and Edwards filed separate motions to dismiss Decker’s claims against them, arguing they are protected under the official immunity doctrine.

The official immunity doctrine protects public officials from being sued in individual capacities for alleged negligible acts committed while those individuals were performing official duties during discretionary situations. decker argued that § 544.157.4 states the duty to supervise vehicular pursuits is ministerial. However, if a public officer does not perform a ministerial duty that is required by law, that individual may be personally liable for damages caused by not performing that duty. The central question when determining whether an act is ministerial “is whether there is any room whatsoever for variation in when and how a particular task can be done.” If there is, the duty is not ministerial.

The circuit court overruled the motions submitted by Helms and Edwards, but the Supreme court of Missouri issued an Permanent Writ of Prohibition. “Sergeant Helms and Chief Edwards may have been negligent in failing to fulfill these discretionary duties with due regard for the public safety and in such a way as to protect Ms. Flath–and this Court assumes as much for purposes of this analysis–but the doctrine of official immunity prohibits the courts of this state from holding them personally liable for such a failure.”

State ex rel. Officer Sergeant Dirk Helms v. Rathert, No. SC 98711 (Mo. banc 2021)

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Consumer prices jumped 6.2% in October, hitting its highest point in more than 30 years according to the Labor Department. The consumer price index (CPI) , which references gasoline, health care, groceries, rent and more, rose 6.2% from a year ago. This is the most since December 1990 and exceeded the Dow Jones estimate. Annual core inflation ran at a 4.6% pace, compared with the 4% expectation. A major contributor to this surge relates to fuel prices, which soared 12.3% for the month, but food and vehicle prices, also rose significantly as well.

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The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a new pandemic low of 267,000 last week as the job market recovers from last year’s sharp coronavirus downturn. Jobless claims fell by 4,000 last week, the Labor Department reported. The four-week average of claims, dropped by nearly 7,300 to 278,000, also a pandemic low. Applications for unemployment aid have been falling mostly steadily since topping 900,000 in early January and are gradually nearing pre-pandemic levels of around 220,000 a week. In March and April of 2020, employers slashed more than 22 million jobs as governments ordered lockdowns and consumers and workers stayed home as a health precaution. Since then, employers have added more than 18 million jobs as the rollout of vaccines and government relief programs gave consumers the confidence and financial wherewithal to resume spending.

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U.S. consumers faced the biggest jump in their energy bills since 2009, with costs soaring for electricity, natural gas and fuel oil as cooler weather approaches. The price of electricity in October increased 6.5% from the same month a year ago while consumer expenses paid to utilities for gas went up 28%, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fuel oil rose 59%, and costs for propane, kerosene and firewood jumped by about 35%, the data show.

That increase in electricity costs was the most since March 2009 and the jump in utility-piped gas service the biggest since August 2008, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. October’s increases are another sign of higher heating bills to come for U.S. households as winter approaches. U.S. prices for natural gas and oil are trading close to multi-year highs amid a global squeeze on supplies and labor shortages at U.S. coal mines adding to woes. This winter will be the costliest since at least 2014-2015 for households using gas, heating oil or electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

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