Bank Has Franchise Act Tax Status

Bank cites TARP to avoid paying ‘golden parachute’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 18, 2013
Tags: Banks & Banking, Federal Courts, Judge Mark Davis

A bank’s ex-CEO who seeks severance pay lives to fight another day after a Norfolk federal judge rejected the bank’s preemptive strike. When Scott C. Harvard demanded the severance payment, Shore Bank, his former employer, filed suit in federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that it was not liable for severance pay under controlling federal [...]

What will be the hot practice areas in ’13?

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: November 29, 2012
Tags: Banks & Banking, Employment, Health Care Law, Intellectual Property, Trends

While a stagnant economy means a tough job market for many lawyers, legal staffing experts predict that attorneys with specialized skills will continue to find themselves in high demand in 2013. It’s a “specialist economy” for the legal profession, said Charles Volkert, executive director at staffing agency Robert Half Legal. “Even though there are significant [...]

Noncompete involving millions can be upheld

By Peter Vieth
Published: June 4, 2012
Tags: Banks & Banking, Federal Courts, Judge Liam O'Grady, Noncompete

An Alexandria federal judge will enforce a lucrative noncompete agreement between Capital One Financial Corp. and two former top executives. The decision by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady in Capital One Financial Corp. v. Kanas (VLW 012-3-213) is remarkable for addressing a covenant not to compete between a major banking corporation and two highly paid [...]

Bank Not Liable for Church Check

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 16, 2012
Tags: Banks & Banking, Judge Mark Davis, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Norfolk church, Garden of Prayer, was a holder in due course of a $400,000 cashier’s check that was not honored by defendant Wells Fargo bank, but Wells Fargo is not liable to Garden of Prayer as it complied with Va. Code § 8.3A-312(c) and could permissibly dishonor the check, as the “lost” check was [...]

Judge: Bank not complicit in acts of loan swindler

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 13, 2012
Tags: Bankruptcy, Banks & Banking, Federal Courts, Judge Robert G. Mayer

A bank that unwittingly helped fund a now-convicted mortgage loan swindler has blocked an effort to force it to give up its proceeds to help pay back victims of the fraud. An Alexandria bankruptcy judge dismissed a trustee’s $4.5-million claim against Gateway Bank FSB of California, finding the lender was not complicit in the criminal [...]

Front of the Line

By Peter Vieth
Published: September 12, 2011
Tags: Bankruptcy, Banks & Banking, Federal Courts, Judge Norman K. Moon

Donald Trump wants to cut to the front of the line to buy a mansion, but a bank is trying to do what few have the temerity to do: To tell Trump “No!” This dust-up arises from the mess leftover by the bankruptcy of heiress Patricia Kluge of Charlottesville. Trump bought the 200-acre “front yard” [...]

SunTrust wins $40M from mortgage insurer

By Alan Cooper
Published: August 23, 2011
Tags: Banks & Banking, Federal Courts, Judge Robert E. Payne, Million-Dollar Verdicts

A federal judge in Richmond has awarded almost $40 million to SunTrust Mortgage Inc. from a subsidiary of AIG Inc. that insured second mortgages issued by the lender. In a related ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne relieved SunTrust of an obligation to pay as much as $92 million in premiums to insure [...]

State can’t tax bank as a corporation

By Peter Vieth
Published: August 10, 2011
Tags: Banks & Banking, Judge Mary Jane Hall, Norfolk Circuit Court, Taxation

When is a bank not a bank? A Norfolk Circuit Court had to answer that question when the Virginia Department of Taxation sought back taxes from a private national bank with a Norfolk branch. The bank came out ahead in that contest. Not only did the bank owe nothing under the department’s initial method for [...]

Bank Not Subject to Corporate Income Tax

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 2, 2011
Tags: Banks & Banking, Judge Mary Jane Hall, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Norfolk Circuit Court says that because AMG National Trust Bank is subject to the Virginia Bank Franchise Tax Act, Va. Code § 58.1-1200, it is not liable for corporate income tax, and the Virginia Department of Taxation is ordered to refund corporate income tax collected from AMG and prohibited from assessing such tax in [...]