Bank Can Enforce Execs’ Noncompete

Defense hopes dashed by dashboard camera

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 31, 2012
Tags: Civil Rights, Federal Courts, Judge Liam O'Grady

A dashboard recording showing a man with his hands raised near his head during an encounter with police supported the man’s civil suit against the officer who charged the man and dropped him to the ground with an elbow strike to the head. The officer who took the man down was not entitled to qualified [...]

Hotel developer wins summary judgment on fraud count – $366,526 Verdict

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: December 24, 2012
Tags: Federal Courts, Fraud, Judge Liam O'Grady, Real Estate

This was a breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and piercing the corporate veil suit by a hotel development company to recover an escrow deposit from a real estate brokerage firm that failed to return it. U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady entered summary judgment for plaintiff hotel development company. After a brief trial, the judge also [...]

Hotel broker hit for fees, punitives

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 19, 2012
Tags: Attorneys Fees, Federal Courts, Fraud, Judge Liam O'Grady

In the face of apparent fraud and no defense, a Virginia federal judge has ordered a hotel brokerage and its owners to pay more than $173,000 in punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs to a hotel development company. The award against embattled Molinaro Koger Inc. of Vienna comes on top of a default judgment for [...]

Fraud Claim Can’t Cancel Forum Selection Clause

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 28, 2012
Tags: Judge Liam O'Grady, Tort, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A defendant who lives in India, has not visited the U.S. since 2008, and who signed a disputed Share Purchase Agreement as president of two corporations before it was sent to a Charlottesville law office for plaintiff shareholders to sign, is not subject to personal jurisdiction in Virginia, says an Alexandria U.S. District Court; however, [...]

Spoliation Dismissal for ‘Wiping’ Computer

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 19, 2012
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Ivan D. Davis, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A computer expert suing for discrimination who ignored his lawyer’s notice to maintain files and documents and instead ran programs called Evidence Eliminator and CCleaner to delete records, then “wiped” his work desktop, “took a sledgehammer to it” and dumped it in a landfill, has his suit dismissed by the Alexandria U.S. District Court for [...]

Suggestive Mark for Watches Allowed

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 26, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A defendant company, Beehive Wholesale LLC, wins summary judgment in the Alexandria U.S. District Court on plaintiff Swatch SA’s Lanham Act claim and other challenges to Beehive’s use of the mark “SWAP.” Central to the merits of this dispute is whether defendant’s SWAP mark creates a likelihood of confusion, dilutes plaintiff’s SWATCH marks, or is [...]

Challenge to Patent ‘Revival’ Is Timely

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 21, 2012
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court declines to dismiss a drug company’s suit challenging defendant U.S Patent & Trademark Office’s decision to revive an abandoned international patent application as the ‘218 patent. Plaintiff challenges the revival decision under 35 U.S.C. § 371(d), alleging the PTO improperly used an “unintentional” rather than an “unavoidable” standard, and that [...]

Company Must Pay Business Sale Broker

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 10, 2012
Tags: Contract, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this contract dispute related to plaintiff SEJ Enterprises’ sale of SCIA LLC to defendant Centra Technology Inc., SEJ wins summary judgment against Centra on a claim arising under SEJ’s prior agreement with a company SEJ hired to assist with the sale of SCIA; the Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment and says SEJ [...]

No Tuition Reimbursement Under IDEA

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 5, 2012
Tags: Civil Rights, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court says a learning-disabled student is not entitled to tuition reimbursement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for private placement by her parents at the Lab School of Washington, as the parents failed to meet their burden to show the schools’ proposed IEPs were inadequate. After a series of evaluations, [...]