Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law is meant to be read broadly, and an insurance policy purchaser bringing a claim under the law should not necessarily need to prove justifiable reliance on the alleged misrepresentations of her agent, a plaintiffs attorney argued Tuesday in Pittsburgh before the state Supreme Court.
The law’s statutory language provides for different types of unfair and deceptive business practices — some of them based on fraud, some not — and a one-size-fits-all ruling as to justifiable reliance does not comport with the Legislature’s intent in passing the law, Kenneth Behrend of Behrend & Ernsberger in Pittsburgh said he told the justices during oral arguments in Toy v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
