Foreclosure OK Despite Deed Defect

Perfume Sprayer Patents Infringed

By Deborah Elkins
Published: June 6, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

After a 13-day bench trial, an Alexandria U.S. District Court finds defendant companies have infringed plaintiff MeadWestvaco’s patents involving the dip tube that transports fragrance from a perfume bottle to the sprayer. Plaintiffs MeadWestvaco Corporation and MeadWestvaco Calmars brought patent infringement claims against defendants Rexam Beauty and Closures Inc., Rexam Dispensing Systems SAS, Valois of [...]

Complaint Without Signature Dismissed

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 8, 2012
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Title VII hostile environment complaint is dismissed with prejudice because it does not carry the signature of a Virginia-licensed lawyer; the Alexandria U.S. District Court says the complaint is a nullity under Virginia law, even though it’s signed by a D.C. lawyer and carries the printed name of a Virginia lawyer who signed the [...]

Lawyer Gets Fees for Support Enforcement

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 17, 2012
Tags: Immigration, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A defendant who agreed to sponsor his mother as an immigrant from Rwanda with his I-864 Affidavit of Support is ordered to pay $10,153 to make good on that promise after his mother suffered a stroke and was hospitalized before she died, and the Alexandria U.S. District Court awards the guardian who sued to enforce [...]

Lawyer mismanaged assets, is convicted of embezzlement

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 16, 2012
Tags: Alexandria Circuit Court, Elder Law, Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Judge Robert J. Smith, Lawyer Discipline, Virginia State Bar

A Falls Church lawyer has been convicted of embezzlement after being ordered to reimburse more than $275,000 in excess fees she charged for management of an elderly couple’s assets, according the Virginia State Bar and court records. A 2009 report by the Fairfax County commissioner of accounts found Erin Weber Anderson, now known as Erin [...]

No Veil-Piercing for Stock Trading Fraud

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 10, 2012
Tags: Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Securities Fraud, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In the Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint that defendants’ “Teach Me to Trade” training programs carried out a scheme to dupe inexperienced investors into buying seminar packages and trading stocks, the Alexandria U.S. District Court dismisses the SEC’s claim for piercing the corporate veil to hold two individual defendants liable, but says the SEC can [...]

No Joinder in Fee-Shifting Clause

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 15, 2011
Tags: Contract, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this contract dispute over production work for a traveling exhibition of “Mummies of the World,” an Alexandria U.S. District Court awards attorney’s fees to plaintiff production company, minus fees for an unsuccessful motion to compel for which plaintiff was sanctioned, in the amount of $110,650. The present litigation arose out of defendant American Exhibitions [...]

No ADA Suit for Cancer Patient

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 15, 2011
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An account executive for a company that provided contract executive-director services for small and medium-sized associations has not alleged a prima facie case of disability discrimination against the company for its termination of her after she asked to take three weeks of accrued leave for cancer treatment, says an Alexandria U.S. District Court; the company [...]

Title VII Suit OK After § 1983 Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 13, 2011
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A female firefighter’s Title VII claim for hostile environment and employment discrimination by the county fire department is not barred by res judicata just because the Alexandria U.S. District Court dismissed plaintiff’s earlier suit alleging sexual harassment and employment discrimination; the court denies defendant’s motion to dismiss because the transactions involved in plaintiff’s previous § [...]

Six-Year Limitations Bars Challenge to Regs

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 13, 2011
Tags: Administrative, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court dismisses plaintiff corporation’s challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s adoption in 2004 of two federal regulations the corporation says have hindered its ability to obtain and present relevant evidence in the course of certain inter partes reexamination proceedings, as the corporation’s complaint was not filed within six years [...]