In California, localities led the way with mandates, but the governor’s Executive Order has left confusion in its wake on the extent to which local rules are preempted. In “California State and Local COVID-19 Orders,” colleagues Robert A. James, Brian E. Finch, Callie A. Bjurstrom and Amanda G. Halter provide an overview of the recent updates and rulings.
On Saturday, March 21, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order No. 202.8 (EO 202.8) requiring all nonessential employees to stay home, effective at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 22, 2020, through April 19, 2020. Any business not in compliance with the order is subject to civil fines and mandatory closures. There will also be restrictions placed on civilians, though specific enforcement measures for those provisions have not been specified. Colleagues Brian E. Finch and Amanda G. Halter summarize the terms under EO 202.8 in the alert “New York State on PAUSE: New York State Shuts Down All Nonessential Businesses to Combat COVID-19.”
If the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread in the United States as it has in other countries, drastic expansions of hospital and quarantine facility capacity are likely to be necessary. In the hard-hit Seattle area, several temporary facilities are already under construction, including a 200-bed temporary quarantine and isolation center built on a soccer field. China’s response to the initial outbreak in the city of Wuhan demonstrates how rapidly authorities can add capacity in an emergency.
In times of uncertainty, every enterprise should undertake a stress test of its supply chain and manage the risks accordingly. The responses to this outbreak are evolving so rapidly that most communications should be expressly based on the state of knowledge on the day and at the hour they are issued. In the alert “Supply Chain Coronavirus Impacts: Force Majeure and Beyond,” colleagues Robert A. James, and James Campbell provide a comprehensive overview to review the impact coronavirus has on the entire supply chain.
Pillsbury colleague David F. Klein outlines four key points to keep in mind when reviewing various insurance policies during the coronavirus pandemic in the alert, “COVID-19 Insurance Checklist.”
As part of Pillsbury’s around-the-clock coverage of how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the construction and real estate industry, colleagues Tom Van Wyngarden and Stephanie Angkadjaja offer key takeaways on OSHA’s guidance specific to the COVID-19 pandemic in “Workplace Safety in the Midst of a Pandemic.”
On March 15, 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued formal guidance to combat the spread of the coronavirus by recommending against gatherings of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks (CDC guidance), which includes nearly every office building in America. Thus, began the most significant work from home experiment this country has ever seen. Continue Reading ›
In “Real Estate Operations in the Coronavirus Era,” colleagues Rachel B. Horsch, Aimee P. Ghosh, Brian E. Finch and Amanda G. Halter highlight ten issues to assess risk and mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak for property owners and landlords.
Effective as of January 1, 2020, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the fall of 2019, provides certain new protections for residential tenants in the State of California. In response to what the statute refers to as “the unique circumstances of the current housing crisis,” the new legislation prohibits residential landlords from terminating leases without just cause for tenants who have occupied the rented premises for 12 months or more, and restricts the amount by which landlords may increase rent, as summarized in more detail below. California’s adoption of this new legislation makes it the third state in the country to implement statewide rent restrictions, a trend that will likely continue to grow in the face of rising rental prices nationwide.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, legislation that caps annual rent increases in California for the next decade. Prior to the Tenant Protection Act, the only state-level protections against rent increases were price-gouging limits that apply only after natural disasters. (See Cal. Penal Code Section 396.) The law also extends “just cause” eviction protections to tenants statewide.
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