August « 2008 « Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Negligence – Premises Liability – Third-Party Assault – Social Guest

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 29, 2008

A tenant’s guest who was attacked by a trespasser to the apartment complex can sue the complex owners and managers, who allegedly had claimed enhanced security at the complex, for negligence and as a third-party beneficiary of the contract between the tenant and the landlord, a Loudoun County Circuit Court rules.
Shehan v. Rush (Loudoun County [...]

Intellectual Property – Drug Application – ANDA – Injunction

By Sarah Rodriguez
Published: August 28, 2008

A Richmond U.S. District Court denies a temporary restraining order sought by plaintiff pharmaceutical company that alleges it agreed to fund defendant pharmaceutical company’s development of an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for Metformin, a diabetes medication, and Benzonantae, a cough medicine, in exchange for certain marketing rights.
Plaintiff alleges that pursuant to the parties’ agreements, [...]

Tort – FTCA – Prison Inmate – Multiple Attacks

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 28, 2008

A federal inmate who alleges he informed prison authorities that he had been attacked and was vulnerable to repeat attack by gang members has his claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act dismissed by a Roanoke U.S. District Court.
Brown v. U.S. (USDC-WD) (VLW 008-3-289) (7 pp.)

Search & Seizure – Consensual Encounter – Man In Parked Car – Drugs In Bag

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 27, 2008

Police had reasonable articulable suspicion to seize defendant and order him out of his car after he three times failed to comply with a police request not to reach down to the floorboard of his car, parked in a motel parking lot where police recently made other drug busts, and the drugs found in a [...]

Civil Rights – Online Land Records – Privacy Right – SSNs

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 26, 2008

A Richmond U.S. District Court holds that Va. Code Sec. 59.1-443.2 is unconstitutional and cannot be applied to the Web site of a privacy-rights advocate who has used her Web site to post SSNs of legislators and clerks of court.
Ostergen v. McDonnell (USDC-ED) (VLW 008-3-323) (33 pp.)

Contract – Parking Lot Design – Economic Loss Rule

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 25, 2008

A parking lot designer cannot use the “economic loss rule” to persuade a Fairfax Circuit Court to dismiss plaintiff recycling business’s suit alleging breach of contract/professional negligence.
Central Park Drive LLC v. Rinker Design Assocs. (Fairfax Cir. Ct.) (VLW 008-8-181) (3 pp.)

Character Evidence

By Peter Vieth
Published: August 25, 2008

Martin F. Clark Jr. – the Patrick County Circuit judge steadily earning fame as a novelist – liberally salted his latest work with recognizable references to people and events around his home town of Stuart. As word spreads about “The Legal Limit,” his third novel, Clark frequently finds himself explaining the links [...]

Gov. Kaine taps Millette and Powell

By Alan Cooper
Published: August 25, 2008

LeRoy F. Millette Jr., Cleo E. Powell and James C. Dimitri now have three of the most prestigious and powerful judicial posts in the state.
The question is whether they’ll have them on Feb. 16.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine elevated Millette from the Virginia Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court of Virginia after Millette had served [...]

High court endorses ‘Principles of Professionalism’

By Alan Cooper
Published: August 25, 2008

The Supreme Court of Virginia has endorsed Principles of Professionalism that their proponents believe “express the ideals of courtesy to which Virginia lawyers should aspire.”
The project was championed by former Virginia Bar Association President William R. Van Buren of Norfolk, who appointed a commission to draft them.
Thomas E. Spahn, a legal ethics authority in the [...]

Real Estate – Church Property – Episcopal Church Split – Contracts Clause

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 25, 2008

In this dispute over property claimed by both the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and the national church, and 11 breakaway congregations, a Fairfax Circuit Court rejects ECUSA/Diocese’s contention that Va. Code § 57-9, which governs determination of property rights on “division” of a church or religious society, violates the constitutional Contracts Clause.
Today, this court answers [...]

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