Credibility Contest No Basis for New Trial

Jury Instruction Issued on Spoliation

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 3, 2012
Tags: Contract, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In a toy-store chain’s contract action against defendant supplier after the chain settled a products liability claim involving a crib manufactured by defendant, the Alexandria U.S. District Court will instruct the jury that defendant had no documents retention policy in place during the relevant time period, as a sanction for spoliation of evidence through document [...]

No Hostile Environment Despite Racial Slurs

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 24, 2012
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A 56-year-old African-American woman who worked as an instructional assistant in a preschools autism program, who was counseled for a series of unexcused absences and other performance deficiencies, cannot sue for Title VII hostile environment based on allegations of two isolated instances in which a teacher allegedly threatened plaintiff and called her a racist epithet, [...]

No Discrimination Claim for Chemotherapy Patient

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 30, 2011
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Defendant federal agency and supervisors win summary judgment in this suit filed by an African-American female employee who alleges defendants violated Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by requesting certain medical documentation during plaintiff’s nine-month work absence from her job as a wastewater treatment operator and by refusing to grant her certain accommodations [...]

Swedish Law Firm’s Suit Time-Barred

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 30, 2011
Tags: Attorneys, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Swedish law firm that sued the company that hired it for legal representation in a 2007 dispute loses on summary judgment because its negligence claim is barred by Virginia’s two-year statute of limitations, says an Alexandria U.S. District Court. Defendant eSCRUB Systems Inc. hired plaintiff Andersson Gustafsson Advokatbyra KB to resolve a dispute in [...]

Insured Covered for Lost Business Income

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 22, 2011
Tags: Insurance, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this litigation over insurance coverage for a shopping center fire, an Alexandria U.S. District Court says defendant National Surety Company owes plaintiff shopping center $623,616 for breach of contract for additional coverage of lost business income, based on all the steps Yorktowne took to get its former tenant to resume operations at the shopping [...]

Lender Gets Prejudgment Interest

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 14, 2011
Tags: Insurance, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Pending insurer’s appeal of its coverage determination (Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, Inc. v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., No. 1:10cv1246, April 6, 2011, VLW 011-3-192), the Alexandria U.S. District Court grants lender prejudgment interest from the date of insurers’ determination to deny coverage and enters final judgment to facilitate appeal. Lender is loss payee [...]

Counsel Did Not Violate FDCPA

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 8, 2011
Tags: Consumer Protection, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment for an attorney and law firm charged with violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in bringing a collection action for nursing home charges; defendants had a colorable factual basis for the claimed deficiency and neither the attorney’s pleading errors nor an allegedly erroneous contact list [...]

HOA Ramp Denial Not Discrimination

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 17, 2011
Tags: Civil Rights, Judge Liam O'Grady, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment to defendant homeowners association, in this housing disability discrimination suit filed by a family who received permission from the HOA’s architectural review board to build the home with a walk-out basement for a family member who uses a wheelchair, but denied the family’s request to construct a [...]

Va. Calibration Test DNA on Federal Parkway

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 17, 2011
Tags: Judge Liam O'Grady, Traffic Offenses, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court affirms defendant’s conviction for speeding on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, despite defendant’s claim the magistrate judge improperly admitted readings of a Lisar laser device without proving recent calibration; because Virginia’s guidelines for calibrating speed-detection devices are administrative, the National Park Service was not required to adopt the measures through [...]