http://valawyersweekly.com VA Lawyers Weekly Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:29:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In this litigation revolving around a written contract for several projects relating to an apartment building project, a Richmond Circuit Court will allow contract claims to go forward against the corporate defendants and tort claims against individual defendants, but sustains demurrers as to claims for conspiracy, unjust enrichment and quantum ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/contract-construction-conspiracy/ Because husband, a captain in the U.S. Air Force, will be stationed near Las Vegas after he completes additional pilot training, and wife, who is in the Secret Service, has cared for the children during husband’s training, a Loudoun County Circuit Court grants primary physical custody to wife. I decline to ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/domestic-relations-custody-visitation-expenses/ Where husband can only communicate with wife by e-mail or text messaging, under a JDR court protective order, and he testified he prefers no dialogue with wife and not to communicate with her at all, a Loudoun County Circuit Court concludes that joint custody of the parties’ three minor children ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/domestic-relations-joint-custody-couple%e2%80%99s-failure-communication/ A Richmond Circuit Court overrules defendant’s plea of the statute of limitations to this suit alleging that plaintiff’s attorney in act, acting under a power of attorney, illegally transferred title to stock of a corporation to defendant. Plaintiff seeks declaratory relief, imposition of a constructive trust and an accounting on ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/corporate-stock-transfer-constructive-trust/ Although plaintiff business has filed a complaint with the FCC in regard to defendant’s alleged release of a toll-free number the business used to market its products to an “adult” phone hotline, plaintiff nevertheless can pursue its state law claims, which are not preempted by federal law, a Chesapeake Circuit ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/tort-business-tort-phone-number-release-%e2%80%98adult%e2%80%99-hotline/ Although wife may have spent retirement assets that could have been invested, a Norfolk Circuit Court says the relative financial abilities of the parties still would support a partial award of attorney’s fees, and the court orders husband to pay $3,500 of wife’s attorney’s fees. The court’s authority to award attorney’s ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/domestic-relations-attorney%e2%80%99s-fees-ability-to-pay/ An Arlington County Circuit Court sets aside a defense verdict and orders a new trial in a personal injury action after the insurer defending the case turned over a last-minute expert report - after trial was over - that bolstered the plaintiff’s claim. Under the discovery rules, State Farm had ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/negligence-discovery-late-report/ Although plaintiff’s $30,000 jury award in this negligence action against a neighbor whose loose dogs knocked down plaintiff in her own driveway was only $2,532 greater than plaintiff’s special damages, a Fairfax Circuit Court says that Bowers v. Sprouse does not require a new trial for plaintiff. In Bowers, the Virginia ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/negligence-damage-award-special-damages-loose-dogs/ An executor who mistakenly gave $5,000 from his aunt’s estate to a cousin, when the bequest was meant for the cousin’s same-name father or his mother, wins a $5,000 judgment against the cousin in this Fairfax Circuit Court case. The aunt’s will bequeathed $5,000 to Thomas E. Pilsch, husband of Evangeline ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/wills-trusts-executor%e2%80%99s-mistake-estate-reimbursement/ The fact finder could conclude that defendant acted under a single intent when he first shoplifted a boy’s blazer from a Nordstrom’s department store, then returned 20 minutes later and shoplifted a pair of pants, and the Court of Appeals affirms his conviction of grand larceny. Virginia cases show that a ... http://valawyersweekly.com/blog/2010/02/08/criminal-grand-larceny-two-thefts-single-intent/