No Interlocutory Appeal for Claim Dismissal

Contaminated Steroid Cases Go Back to State Court

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 15, 2013
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Samuel G. Wilson, U.S. District Court - Western District

A Roanoke U.S. District Court remands to state court multiple suits against defendant physicians, a corporation and a pain-management clinic alleging defendants acted negligently, fraudulently and in violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act by obtaining a contaminated injectable steroid from the New England Compounding Center and administering it to patients who contracted fungal meningitis. [...]

Contaminated Steroid Case Remanded to State Court

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 15, 2013
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Samuel G. Wilson, U.S. District Court - Western District

A Roanoke U.S. District Court remands to state court an estate’s suit against defendant physicians, a corporation and a pain-management clinic alleging defendants acted negligently, fraudulently and in violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act by obtaining a contaminated injectable steroid from the New England Compounding Center and administering it to decedent, who died from [...]

Rule changes would deal with discovery

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: May 10, 2013
Tags: Civil Procedure, Discovery, Federal Courts

Lawyers are concerned that discovery is getting out of hand. The masses of data that are part of everyday operations in modern organizations are generating ever-more complicated discovery demands, even in simple cases. Responding to concern from litigators nationwide, the U.S. Courts’ Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure recently approved proposed changes to several [...]

Wrongful Death Suit Remanded

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 8, 2013
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge James P. Jones, U.S. District Court - Western District

A Big Stone Gap U.S. District Court remands to state court plaintiff administrator’s wrongful death suit against a health and rehabilitation center. Because plaintiff is a citizen of Virginia, it is now clear that there is no longer complete diversity between plaintiff and each defendant in this case and thus this court no longer has [...]

Suit to Invalidate Trust OK in Federal Court

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 8, 2013
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge T.S. Ellis III, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court says the probate exception to federal court jurisdiction does not apply to a suit that seeks to invalidate an inter vivos trust, and it denies plaintiff’s motion to remand this suit back to a Virginia state court. Col. William P. Oliver Jr., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), created the William P. [...]

Fees Awarded in Suit to Enforce Settlement

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 8, 2013
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Claude M. Hilton, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this suit to enforce the parties’ settlement of alleged breaches of an agreement between a Virginia business and a German corporation, the Alexandria U.S. District Court, on remand from the 4th Circuit, awards defendant, as prevailing party, $893,771.64 in attorney’s fees and $55,249.76 in costs. The parties’ 2008 settlement agreement provided that in the [...]

Fees Reduced for Duplicate Work

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 8, 2013
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Claude M. Hilton, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In the wake of defendant AOL’s $5 million offer to settle class claims by AOL members who allege defendant violated electronic privacy laws by releasing for download 20 million search queries conducted by people using over 600,000 AOL screen names, the Alexandria U.S. District Court declines to award fees in the amount requested by class [...]

Pakistani Forum Not Convenient for Hotel Explosion Suit

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 7, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Judge Roger L. Gregory

The family of a former naval commander who worked as a private security contractor and who was killed in a 2008 terrorist bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, is entitled to heightened deference to their decision to sue Marriott in a Maryland federal court instead of a Pakistani court, and because the district [...]

No Jurisdiction from Internet Pharmacy Sales

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 7, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Defendant foreign banks cannot be sued in a Virginia federal district court for an alleged global cyber-crime conspiracy to collect funds from the sale of illegal counterfeit prescription drugs over the Internet to American consumers; the 4th Circuit affirms dismissal of this suit for injunctive relief for lack of personal jurisdiction over the foreign banks. [...]