2008 November 10 | Virginia Lawyers Weekly - Part 4

Sovereign immunity plea fails in wreck caused by policeman – $2,220,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: November 10, 2008

David Barnes, an 18-year-old male, was a front-seat passenger in a tow truck driven by his employer. The tow truck was traveling eastbound in the left lane of U.S. 460 in Sussex County on June 13, 2006. The defendant, Alfred Mitchell, a Town of Waverly police officer, was also traveling in the left lane, [...]

Physician’s directives disputed in complications from diabetes – Defense Verdict

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: November 10, 2008

The decedent was a patient of the defendant family practitioner. He was seen by the defendant at 4 p.m. and died of a diabetic crisis approximately seven hours later that night. The wife and mother of the decedent testified that they brought him to the office and indicated that they suspected he took too [...]

Criminal – B&E – Larceny Intent

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 10, 2008

With no evidence to show a drunken defendant looked at or took any items from the retail store he broke into by using a metal pole to shatter a glass door, the defendant cannot be convicted of breaking and entering with intent to commit larceny, the Supreme Court of Virginia says, reversing the en banc [...]

Motorist suffers burns to 40 percent of body in crash – $5,000,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: November 10, 2008

On June 6, 2007, the defendant driver was operating an Atlas Van Lines Freightliner tractor on southbound Interstate 95 in Richmond, when his vehicle collided with a Honda which was also traveling southbound. The defendant tractor veered to the left and crossed the jersey wall separating the north and southbound lanes of the interstate, [...]

Insurance – Title Insurance – Trustee Suit – Tax Liens

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 10, 2008

In this diversity action for breach of a title insurance policy, an Alexandria U.S. District Court grants partial summary judgment to plaintiff, trustee on certain McLean real estate held in a trust of which she was sole beneficiary during her lifetime, on her claim that defendant title company breached an insurance policy when it denied [...]

Contract – Industrial Machine – UCC – Michigan Law

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 10, 2008

In this “convoluted breach of contract action” involving defendant’s purchase of a custom-built industrial machine from plaintiff and its Italian affiliate, a Richmond U.S. District Court applies Michigan’s Uniform Commercial Code to grant partial summary judgment on defendant purchaser’s counterclaim.
The machine at issue in this case is a complicated, custom-built apparatus designed to fill containers [...]

Admiralty – Contract Breach – In Rem Action – ‘Ships To Reef’ Program

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 10, 2008

Although an obsolete Navy vessel from the 1940s is declassified and “dead,” plans to modify the ship for use as an artificial reef off the coast of Florida allow a Norfolk U.S. District Court to regard the ship as a “vessel” subject to the court’s admiralty jurisdiction in this breach of contract action by a [...]

Criminal – Cocaine – School Proximity – Identification Theft

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 10, 2008

A Newport News U.S. District Judge is troubled by the expansion of “interstate commerce” to include a cocaine dealer who simply used a false identification, a crime “which is apparently small in its scale and its scope,” but the judge says precedent calling cocaine trade “interstate commerce” requires him to convict defendant for identification theft [...]

Wings Over Northern Virginia

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 10, 2008

Attorneys for a restaurant chain specializing in spicy Buffalo wings are searching for assets and demanding nearly $70,000 in attorneys’ fees after eight months of effort to enforce a consent order against an “obstreperous” copycat eatery.
The owners of the alleged infringing restaurant were so derelict in following the terms of a consent order that Alexandria [...]

Employment Discrimination – Title VII – Race – Gender – Police Employee

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 10, 2008

A 53-year-old white male who was responsible for ethics investigations in the City of Wilmington, N.C. police department has no Title VII claim for race and gender discrimination based on his complaint that he was disciplined because his employer was attempting to cover up the employer’s own wrongdoing, the 4th Circuit holds.
Plaintiff’s claim founders on [...]

« Previous page