Criminal – Drug Trafficking – Crack Quantity – Collins Error – Sentencing 
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 19, 2008
A drug defendant’s jury was not properly instructed that it had to determine the statutory threshold quantities of crack attributable to him, and under U.S. v. Collins, defendant’s 30-year sentence is vacated as he is only eligible for the 20-year statutory maximum on this count, the 4th Circuit says.
The five defendants in these consolidated appeals [...]
Criminal – Affidavit Challenge – ‘Franks’ Hearing – Substantial Showing
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 19, 2008
A defendant facing a weapons charge who said a police officer’s search-warrant affidavit intentionally misled the state judge by omitting from his affidavit facts about the location of the trash the officer searched inside defendant’s fenced backyard, has made the necessary “substantial preliminary showing,” the 4th Circuit says, to require the district court to [...]
Criminal – Copyright Infringement – Bootleg DVDs – Retail Value
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 19, 2008
A defendant who sold 100 bootleg DVDs to an undercover agent for $500, then sold the agent 200 more DVDs for $1,000, can be convicted of a felony for selling DVDS with a “retail value” over $2,500, says the 4th Circuit in this case of first impression.
Defendant was convicted for violating 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1) [...]
Insurance – Crop Insurance – Quota Rate – Contract Claim
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 19, 2008
In this multi-district class-action litigation brought by peanut farmers who lost their 2002 crops to severe drought, the 4th Circuit vacates summary judgment for the farmers on a breach of contract claim the farmers pursued after they were indemnified for their losses at a rate of 17.75 cents per pound, instead of the 31-cent rate [...]
Three insurers provide coverage in pickup crash – $1,000,000 Settlement
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: May 19, 2008
On June 1, 2006, the plaintiff was a front seat passenger in a Ford pickup truck driven by a close friend. The friend/host driver attempted to cross a four-lane divided highway and failed to yield the right-of-way, pulling directly into the path of a tractor-trailer approaching from the left. It was alleged that a [...]
Patient breaks leg, cuts forehead in fall from bed – $310,000 Verdict
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: May 19, 2008
A 91-year-old female nursing home patient was allowed to fall from her bed to the floor. As a result of the fall, she sustained a forehead laceration and a non-displaced left femur fracture. The forehead laceration required 10 sutures. No surgery was required for the femur fracture.
Before the fall, the patient was [...]
Heel, hand fractures caused by collision – $400,000 Settlement
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: May 19, 2008
Plaintiff exited Interstate 195 at the Carytown exit in Richmond, intending to proceed to Ellwood Thompson grocery store. As she approached the intersection of Cary Street and Thompson Street, her light was green. She drove through the intersection, and the defendant, who was traveling in the opposite direction on South Thompson Street, turned [...]
Complications arise from serious ear infection – $2,200,000 Verdict
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: May 19, 2008
The plaintiff, age 72, was referred to the defendant, a specialist in neurotology and otology for ear pain and drainage. The defendant correctly diagnosed the condition as necrotizing otitis externa (NOE), a serious infection that invades ear structures, cranial nerves and bone. If left untreated, this condition can be fatal. It arises in elderly diabetics [...]
Employment Discrimination – Public Health Nurse – Title VII – Race
By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 19, 2008
An African-American registered nurse who alleges she was not hired by the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps because of race discrimination may have a claim under Title VII, if she applied for a vacancy not designated for commissioned officers that could be filled by civilians and her application could be rejected by the Corps, and [...]
A question of technique
By Alan Cooper
Published: May 19, 2008
Virginia could end up adopting a different method of lethal injection, following a line of questioning from a 4th Circuit judge during a death-penalty case.
As Washington defense attorney Matthew S. Hellman was describing what he saw as Virginia’s “unique and uniquely dangerous” lethal injection procedure, Judge Dennis C. Shedd interrupted and asked whether the real [...]
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