No Claim from Ban on Postal Worker’s Book Ad

No Interlocutory Appeal for Overtime-Pay Class

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Judge Raymond A. Jackson, Labor, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this suit by plaintiff discount store employees for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a Norfolk U.S. District Court denies defendants’ motion to certify for interlocutory appeal the court’s earlier conditional certification of a class of plaintiffs. While the 4th Circuit has not ruled directly on whether interlocutory appeals of FLSA conditional [...]

Cleaner’s Workload Shows Disparate Treatment

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge John A. Gibney Jr., U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An African-American female housekeeper at a retirement home has stated Title VII claims for race and sex discrimination based on alleged disparate treatment in which she was assigned 148 rooms to clean, while one male Caucasian worker was only assigned 30 rooms and another such worker slept on the job, with supervisor approval; however, the [...]

No Title VII Suit After Bankruptcy Nondisclosure

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Mark Davis, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A plaintiff has no standing to pursue her Title VII suit alleging a sexually hostile work environment at her workplace because she did not disclose her Title VII claims during her Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding; the Newport News U.S. District Court accepts the magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss plaintiff’s suit against the Peninsula Airport Commission. [...]

Claim May Be Timely After All

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge John A. Gibney Jr., U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A woman who claims she was fired from her job at a 7-Eleven store due to race and age discrimination gets another chance to pursue her case, as the Richmond U.S. District Court grants her Rule 59 motion because it finds a sufficient question of fact as to whether plaintiff filed her EEOC charge within [...]

Sanctions for Nonlawyer Corporate Rep

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Bankruptcy, Judge Robert E. Payne, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Richmond U.S. District Court upholds a finding of contempt of court and sanctions against appellant, who was repeatedly admonished that, as a non-attorney, he could not appear in bankruptcy court to represent a creditor corporation. As a threshold matter, debtor-appellee Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc. argues this court is without jurisdiction to consider the appeal because [...]

Witness Sequestration Claim Fails

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Criminal, Judge John A. Gibney Jr., U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A defendant convicted of bank fraud cannot win a new trial by arguing a government witness violated a court order under Fed. R. Evid. 615, because one government witness made comments to other witnesses, outside the courtroom, as they were waiting to testify. The court denies defendant’s motion because, first and foremost, government witnesses violated [...]

Ex-Employee Faces Business Tort Claims

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Employment, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this litigation arising from a group of employees leaving plaintiff Alliance Technology Group LLC to join a competitor, Achieve 1 LLC, a Richmond U.S. District Court says Alliance has stated claims against one former employee for breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of trade secrets and tortious [...]

No Transfer in Cocaine Conspiracy Case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Criminal, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Richmond U.S. District Court denies defendant’s motion to transfer his cocaine conspiracy case to Baltimore federal court; although defendant’s lawyer is in Baltimore and the $2.4 million cocaine buy was to occur in Baltimore, the codefendants have Richmond lawyers and the conspirators met at Richmond International Airport because they perceived security was more lax [...]

EPA Can’t Regulate Stormwater Load

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Environmental, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Clean Water Act does not authorize the EPA to regulate the level a pollutant in Accotink Creek, a 25-mile long tributary of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, by establishing a total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the flow of stormwater, a nonpollutant, into the creek, and the Alexandria U.S. District Court grants the [...]