Mom Pays Fees After Custody Change to Dad

MERS is Necessary Party to Mechanic’s Lien Suit

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 9, 2012
Tags: Contract, Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Virginia Circuit Courts

A contractor may not proceed to enforce a mechanic’s lien against a homeowner because the contractor’s complaint does not include MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registrations Systems Inc., as a necessary party to the mechanic’s lien suit, says a Fairfax Circuit Court. The issue is whether MERS is a necessary party to this mechanic’s lien suit. [...]

QDRO Supersedes Divorce Decree

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 13, 2011
Tags: Domestic Relations, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Virginia Court of Appeals

Although the parties’ 2005 final divorce decree stated wife would receive 50 percent of husband’s county pension as equitable distribution, their 2008 Qualified Domestic Relations Order, entered by consent, stated wife was entitled to 50 percent of the “marital share of the retirement benefits,” and the Fairfax Circuit Court refuses to find husband in contempt [...]

High school seniors have law fun in the summertime

By Alan Cooper
Published: June 27, 2011
Tags: Bar Associations, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Judge Thomas D. Horne

Ahh, summer camp. Arts and crafts, bunk buddies and ghost stories around the campfire. Add to that the sound of a gavel, as a judge rules in a car crash case that involves teens texting and drinking and is, like, totally presented by teen campers. Welcome to the Leadership in the Law camp, known as [...]

Business Wins Damages for Breach of Duty

By Deborah Elkins
Published: June 24, 2011
Tags: Corporate, Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Virginia Circuit Courts

In these four consolidated cases that arose from the business relationships among three men, first operating a Shakey’s Pizza franchise and later a restaurant that also served as the site for a side business preparing box lunches for visiting school groups, a Fairfax Circuit Court denies an accounting and awards two of the parties damages [...]

Midlothian’s Garrett gets one-year suspension

By Peter Vieth
Published: June 1, 2011
Tags: Chesterfield County Circuit Court, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Lawyer Discipline, Virginia State Bar

Midlothian attorney Stacy F. Garrett III, a former Richmond prosecutor, has been hit with a second one-year suspension of his law license. A three-judge panel of Chesterfield County Circuit Court ordered the suspension for Garrett, finding he failed to use reasonable diligence in representing clients in two matters and he failed to respond to requests [...]

Relatives Can Sue for Fraud & Conspiracy

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 13, 2011
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Virginia Circuit Courts, Wills & Trusts

In this suit by relatives of a woman who died of brain cancer, claiming fraud, conversion and unjust enrichment by decedent’s former work supervisor and decedent’s lawyer cousin, a Fairfax Circuit Court says plaintiffs have stated claims for fraud and for conspiracy to commit conversion, and will allow amendment of additional claims. Plaintiffs in this [...]

Too much talk

By Peter Vieth
Published: April 4, 2011
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Legal Malpractice

A Fairfax circuit judge bounced a Maryland lawyer from a Virginia legal malpractice case last month for alleged bad behavior at a series of “contentious and hostile” depositions. In effect, the lawyer was thrown off the case for talking too much. Fairfax Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush found the lawyer had violated an order barring [...]

Investors’ Group Can Amend Contract Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 31, 2011
Tags: Contract, Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Virginia Circuit Courts

In this contract dispute between plaintiff investors’ group that allegedly procured financing for defendant Allied Defense Group, a Fairfax Circuit Court reconsiders its earlier rulings on demurrers, and says plaintiff arguably has stated a claim for breach of a promise to pay plaintiff for its services after plaintiff was advised that the funding was rejected, [...]

Restaurant Lease Guarantor Hangs on to His Win

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 29, 2011
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Jane Marum Roush, Landlord/Tenant, Virginia Circuit Courts

A landlord can’t overturn a jury verdict for a guarantor of a restaurant lease with a claim of “jury nullification”; a Fairfax Circuit Court says the guarantor’s testimony that he received a verbal assurance that his guaranty was released when the restaurant changed hands in 2004 supported the view that the claimed damages were not [...]