No Exclusive Contract for Cable Provider

Comments Did Not Create ‘Hostile Environment’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 22, 2012
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Anthony J. Trenga, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Ford dealership wins summary judgment in this race discrimination suit in which an African-American claims he was subjected to a hostile work environment based on a series of comments referencing plaintiff as looking like a “thug,” having access to marijuana in the “hood,” wearing a “homie hat” and a coworker’s comment that he wouldn’t [...]

Default Judgment for Defrauded Investor

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 3, 2012
Tags: Judge Anthony J. Trenga, Tort, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

After a partial default judgment and a bench trial on plaintiff investor’s damages from claims of fraud and RICO conspiracy against defendants who urged him to invest over $2 million in the “Old Navajo Foundation,” which was in fact a Ponzi scheme, an Alexandria U.S. District Court awards plaintiff fraud damages of $1.19 million; RICO [...]

Refusal to Sell to Tenant Not Discrimination

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 21, 2012
Tags: Judge Anthony J. Trenga, Real Estate, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this suit alleging defendant real estate company discriminated against plaintiffs, an African-American woman and her black Hispanic fiancé who had rented a townhouse for eight years, by declining to sell them the townhouse, an Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment to defendants on plaintiffs’ claim under the Fair Housing Act, as plaintiffs could [...]

Salesman Claims Child-Care Based Gender Bias

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 10, 2012
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Anthony J. Trenga, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A male pharmaceutical sales representative cannot sue for gender discrimination based on his supervisor’s inquiry about whether the salesman’s wife could take their children to school at 8:30 so the salesman could comply with the supervisor’s 8:00 a.m. start time for all sales representatives he supervised; the Alexandria U.S. District Court dismisses plaintiff’s claims for [...]

No Private School Tuition for IDEA Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 10, 2012
Tags: Civil Rights, Judge Anthony J. Trenga, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A student who is a cancer survivor with hearing impairment, specific learning disability and other health impairment under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has received a free appropriate education through defendant school board’s Individualized Education Program for the student, as required by the IDEA, even though her mother asserts she performed much better at [...]

FDIC May Sue for Real Estate Refund

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 10, 2012
Tags: Judge Anthony J. Trenga, Taxation, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation may sue under federal common law for a refund of local real estate taxes paid to Arlington County on an allegedly erroneous assessment of its property as a “hotel,” but the Alexandria U.S. District Court dismisses the FDIC’s claim for a declaratory judgment. Unlike many federal entities, plaintiff FDIC is [...]

Software Company Director Breached Loyalty Duty

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 23, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Anthony J. Trenga, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although defendant, director of a Moldavan LLC that sold software products in the U.S. and around the world, claimed he restructured the company and sought new distributor arrangements to benefit the company, an Alexandria U.S. District Court says the director breached a fiduciary duty of loyalty when he organized a separate corporation under Virginia law [...]

Warranty Referral Not RESPA ‘Kickback’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 16, 2012
Tags: Judge Anthony J. Trenga, Real Estate, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A home warranty company’s $60 payment to the real estate company whose agent referred a home buyer to the warranty company to purchase a $399 home warranty was not an illegal kickback under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and the Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment for the real estate company on the [...]

Court Orders First-to-File Transfer

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 2, 2012
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Anthony J. Trenga, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this declaratory judgment action by secondary market lender against insurer, the Alexandria U.S. District Court stays transfer to the Wisconsin Eastern U.S. District Court pending that court’s resolution of a subject matter jurisdiction issue; insurer filed its action a day earlier in its home state for legitimate reasons, considerations of equity and convenience do [...]