2008 May 05 | Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Chapter 3: Opinions

By dmc-admin
Published: May 5, 2008

Since Virginia Lawyers Weekly first hit the presses almost 22 years ago, we’ve been the commonwealth’s leading source in digesting and providing full-text copies of court opinions to our readers. But only recently has the method for obtaining these documents undergone a significant change.
In 2006, we retired our automated fax service and began offering opinions [...]

Criminal – Voluntariness of Statement – Interrogation Technique – Photo Line-Up

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

A detective’s rough interrogation technique — he told the robbery suspect, “We will take these cases, we will roll ‘em up in balls, and we will jam ‘em so far up your ass that you will be in prison long after we retire”– did not render defendant’s statement involuntary and the Alexandria Circuit Court denies [...]

Attorneys – Sanctions – Appeals – Jurisdiction

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

A Richmond Circuit Court has no subject matter jurisdiction to hear these two appeals from general district court orders imposing sanctions in these matters arising from warrants in debt.
These two cases are appeals from GDC orders granting sanctions under Va. Code § 8.01-271.1. The motions emanate from underlying cases consolidated for trial involving several warrants [...]

Zoning – Notice Ad – Shopping Center – Big-Box Store

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

A newspaper notice alerting readers of a public hearing to consider a special exception to the zoning law for construction of a shopping center was not fatally defective because it failed to specify plans to build a “big box” Costco store, a Fauquier County Circuit judge rules.
Under Va. Code § 15.2-2204(A), notice of public hearings [...]

Civil Procedure – Amendment – Ad Damnum

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

In an auto accident case, a plaintiff who won a $15,000 judgment on a warrant in debt in general district court cam amend her complaint to ask for $30,000 in damages, even though only one of the two defendants appealed de novo to the Alexandria Circuit Court.
Plaintiff seeks leave to increase the ad damnum clause [...]

Zoning – Preservation Ordinance – Historic Landmark – Demolition Permit

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

A $12.3M purchase offer from the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation was a bona fide offer to preserve plaintiff’s property — an Alexandria garden apartment complex — in accordance with the local preservation ordinance, Sec. 10-108(A), and the Alexandria Circuit Court grants summary judgment for the Board of Zoning Appeals, which denied an application to [...]

Real Estate – Commercial Lease – TRO – Construction Noise

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

A lease that gave a real estate agency the right to “peaceably and quietly occupy and enjoy” the premises “without molestation or hindrance by Lessor” is the basis for an Alexandria Circuit Court’s grant of a temporary restraining order that forbids jack hammering, chip hammering or other construction work that causes loud noise anywhere on [...]

Wills & Trusts – Decedent’s Intent – Residuary Clause

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

Although a will’s grant of “all of the rest and remainder of my estate” did not include the additional language, “real, personal or mixed,” an Alexandria Circuit Court says the residuary clause nevertheless clearly stated an intent to include the testator’s Alexandria condo in the residual property that went to the executor, not to plaintiff [...]

Municipal – Contract – Jail Locks

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

Plaintiff Corrections Products Company, who failed to comply with requirements of defendant City of Alexandria’s Invitation To Bid for a “complete turn-key project” to replace jail cell locks, loses its protest of the award to another bidder in a decision by an Alexandria Circuit Court judge.
The bid submitted by plaintiff did not comply with the [...]

Real Estate – Title Insurance – Damages

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 5, 2008

In a plaintiff’s suit against a title insurance company, an Alexandria Circuit Court rules that the date of plaintiff’s loss, if any, is determined on the date when plaintiffs purchased the property, not the date they actually discovered the alleged defect in title.
The case of Title Ins. Co. of Richmond v. Industrial Bd. Of Richmond, [...]