Similarly Situated Comparator Lacking

Discount Store Settles Title VII Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 14, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Richmond U.S. District Court enters a consent order in this suit filed by the EEOC against defendant discount store, and orders defendant to pay the victim $45,000 to settle her claims of hostile environment based on sex and constructive discharge. In the event defendant is contacted for a job reference for plaintiff former employee, [...]

Ex-Employee Faces Business Tort Claims

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Employment, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this litigation arising from a group of employees leaving plaintiff Alliance Technology Group LLC to join a competitor, Achieve 1 LLC, a Richmond U.S. District Court says Alliance has stated claims against one former employee for breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of trade secrets and tortious [...]

No Transfer in Cocaine Conspiracy Case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Criminal, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Richmond U.S. District Court denies defendant’s motion to transfer his cocaine conspiracy case to Baltimore federal court; although defendant’s lawyer is in Baltimore and the $2.4 million cocaine buy was to occur in Baltimore, the codefendants have Richmond lawyers and the conspirators met at Richmond International Airport because they perceived security was more lax [...]

State Employee Layoff Not Discriminatory

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 11, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A native East Indian and naturalized citizen who worked for over 25 years for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation has failed to state claims for national origin employment discrimination in violation of Title VII based on allegations that the DCR retaliated against him, refused to interview or select him for certain positions and [...]

ERISA Benefits Cover Overdose ‘Accident’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 11, 2013
Tags: Employment, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Richmond U.S. District Court says an ERISA plan administrator abused its discretion in denying accidental death benefits to the widower of a woman who died while under the care of her treating physician, as the plan administrator’s analysis of the claim does not employ a reasonable definition of the term “accident.” The plan does [...]

Tax Evasion Is ‘Continuing Offense’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 7, 2013
Tags: Criminal, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although there is a six-year statute of limitations for unlawful evasion of taxes, the government can charge defendant with evasion during a 12-year period as a single continuous offense with the last act occurring as recently as 2007, and the Richmond U.S. District Court denies defendant’s motion to dismiss this count as unconstitutionally duplicitious. The [...]

Homeowners’ Contract, Fraud Claims Survive

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 7, 2013
Tags: Judge Henry E. Hudson, Real Estate, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although defendant bank provided 29 days’ notice of intent to accelerate plaintiff homeowners’ loan, instead of the required 30 days, the Richmond U.S. District Court will not dismiss plaintiffs’ claim for breach of contract, or their claim for actual fraud, based on alleged representations by a named bank employee that the foreclosure sale scheduled for [...]

Defendant lost attorney-client privilege by blaming lawyers

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 20, 2012
Tags: Attorney-Client Privilege, Bankruptcy, Federal Courts, Fraud, Judge Henry E. Hudson

A former Midlothian man fighting charges of tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud cannot claim attorney-client privilege to shield information in his former lawyers’ files, a federal judge in Richmond has ruled. The bankruptcy case of Arash Moazzeni was marked by finger-pointing and backbiting among Moazzeni and his lawyers in the face of evidence suggesting Moazzeni [...]

No Jurisdiction Over Loan Closers

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 19, 2012
Tags: Judge Henry E. Hudson, Real Estate, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In lender’s action for indemnity against broker, the Richmond U.S. District Court says it lacks jurisdiction to include a Massachusetts closing attorney and title company the broker claims should be responsible for borrower’s fraud. In early 2007, lender and broker entered an agreement for broker to originate mortgage loans. The agreement included provision for broker [...]