Wills & Trusts – Real Estate – ‘Sold’ – Closing After Death 
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
A parcel is not “sold” under the terms of a woman’s will where she entered into a contract to sell the parcel seven months before she died, but the sale did not close until after her death, a Norfolk Circuit Court holds.
A provision in the will stated that the testator devised her home and the [...]
Negligence – Auto Accident – Remittitur – Counseling
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
A woman who was taken to the emergency room and released after an auto accident, and who sought counseling for nightmares 18 months later, but continued working, has her jury verdict of $350,000 reduced to $50,000 by a Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Following the accident, plaintiff was taken by emergency vehicle to the local hospital where [...]
Domestic Relations – Custody – Wyoming Move – Traveling Parent
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
A Roanoke City Circuit judge says a mother’s move to Cheyenne, Wyoming with the couple’s five-year-old son is in the best interest of the child, where the father travels frequently for his job with a defense contractor.
Under the couple’s agreement incorporated into their final divorce decree, the couple has joint legal custody of the child, [...]
Domestic Relations – Equitable Distribution – Separate Debt
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
The Court of Appeals reverses a final divorce decree, agreeing with husband that the trial court erred in ruling that funds borrowed from a family trust was husband’s separate debt.
In the summer of 2004, before the parties’ final separation, husband borrowed $90,000 from the Boisseau Family Trust. He used part of the money to pay [...]
Domestic Relations – Equitable Distribution – Marital Home
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
The Court of Appeals declines to hear the majority of husband’s 32 questions presented in his appeal brief challenging the divorce court’s equitable distribution award, which recognized wife’s funds were used to construct the marital home, to which husband contributed funds for mortgage payments, as husband has failed to preserve most issues for appeal.
The divorce [...]
Biker injures right leg in logging truck wreck – $295,000 Settlement
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: October 27, 2008
On Oct. 24, 2003, the 48-year-old plaintiff, Otis Lancaster, was operating a motorcycle westbound on a two lane highway in Spotsylvania County when defendant Hogge, who was driving a logging truck, pulled out from a construction site and onto the highway in front of the plaintiff.
Plaintiff swerved to avoid a collision with the truck and [...]
Domestic Relations – Contempt – Lump-Sum Payment
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
A divorce court did not err in holding husband in contempt and imposing a 12-month jail sentence for failure to pay wife a $25,000 lump-sum payment, despite husband’s claim that the final divorce decree set no time limit for making such payment, the Court of Appeals holds.
Trial court decision summarily affirmed pursuant to Rule 5A:27.
Stoneman [...]
Domestic Relations – Custody – Statutory Factors
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
Contrary to a mother’s assertion, a divorce court was not required to state how much weight it gave each of the statutory factors to determine child custody under Va. Code § 20-124.3, and the Court of Appeals upholds the grant of primary physical custody of the children to father.
The lower court explained that mother’s instability [...]
Criminal – Car Theft – Intent
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
A man who took his pregnant girlfriend’s car after she fled from him when he threatened to kill her, then kill himself, had the necessary intent to be convicted of grand larceny of a vehicle and his conviction under Va. Code § 18.2-95(ii) is affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
On appeal, defendant does not challenge [...]
Civil Procedure – Settlement Conference – Authorized Representative – Sanctions
By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 27, 2008
A Roanoke U.S. District Court declines to sanction ALPS for failing to have an authorized representative appear in person at a settlement conference ordered by the magistrate judge, where the court had granted summary judgment days earlier to the defendant law firm and the “parties remained light years apart in settlement.”
The magistrate judge entered a [...]
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