DOT Procedure Not Exhaustion Requirement

School Bus Driver’s FLSA Retaliation Claim Fails

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 8, 2013
Tags: Judge James R. Spencer, Labor, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Richmond U.S. District Court says a school bus driver who alleges she was fired in retaliation for filing a claim for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act may not amend her complaint because her additional allegations still do not show a causal connection between her protected activity and her later termination for [...]

No Quiet Title Suit to Collect Architect Fee

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 1, 2013
Tags: Judge James R. Spencer, Real Estate, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An architectural firm hired to provide design services for the proposed National Slavery Museum cannot enforce a judgment lien on property owned by the museum in Fredericksburg; the Richmond U.S. District Court says there is no controversy ripe to support a request for declaratory judgment and plaintiff’s status as a judgment creditor does not support [...]

Employee Fired After Probation Term

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 20, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge James R. Spencer, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Virginia Housing Development Authority wins summary judgment in a former employee’s suit alleging race and/or sex discrimination; the Richmond U.S. District Court says plaintiff was warned about boundaries for workplace relationships and violated conditions of her probation, prompting her termination. Plaintiff, an African-American female, was formerly employed in the Information Technology Services Department at [...]

Foreclosed Borrower’s Claim Proceeds

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 12, 2013
Tags: Judge James R. Spencer, Real Estate, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Richmond U.S. District Court allows foreclosed borrowers’ action to proceed against lender on allegations lender breached deed of trust conditions requiring compliance with a federal regulation requiring a personal face-to-face interview; borrower’s other claims are dismissed. In October 2008, borrowers obtained a residential mortgage loan assigned to lender; a law firm was named trustee [...]

No Civil Rights Claim from Detainee’s Suicide Attempt

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 27, 2013
Tags: Civil Rights, Judge James R. Spencer, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Adopting the recommendation of the magistrate judge, a Richmond U.S. District Court dismisses this civil rights suit filed by the guardian of a woman who remains in a nursing home in a persistent vegetative state after surviving a suicide attempt while detained in Richmond City Jail where she was taken after she was discovered in [...]

Lender May Sue Broker for Borrower Fraud

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 11, 2013
Tags: Contract, Judge James R. Spencer, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Plaintiff mortgage company may sue defendant mortgage broker for breach of contract with respect to nine home mortgage loans defendant brokered to plaintiff, says the Richmond U.S. District Court. The court denies defendant’s motion to dismiss on the following grounds: 1) plaintiff’s claim is not barred by the statute of limitations; 2) fraud by the [...]

No Claim Over Gas Pump Confrontation

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 19, 2012
Tags: Civil Rights, Judge James R. Spencer, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An African-American plaintiff who alleges defendant white employees of Uppy’s who called him a “liar and a thief” in a dispute over whether he had paid for gasoline has offered only conclusory assertions of race discrimination based on his personal belief, and the Richmond U.S. District Court dismisses his federal claims and remands his state [...]

Dismissal After Notice-and-Cure Failure

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 28, 2012
Tags: Judge James R. Spencer, Real Estate, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A homeowner’s contract action against the U.S. is not barred under the doctrine of res judicata by an earlier Consent Order in which plaintiff promised to stay current on his mortgage; the Richmond U.S. District Court denies the motion to dismiss the claim against the U.S., but dismisses the claims against the other two defendants, [...]

Fee Motion Too Late After ‘Judgment’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 20, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge James R. Spencer, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this patent infringement action involving slow cookers, a Richmond U.S. District Court strikes the winning defendant’s motion for attorney’s fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285 as the defendant miscalculated the date to file the motion by calling the “final judgment” the date the court sent to the PTO the Patent Determination Report, not the [...]