Use of Codefendant Tape Violated Edwards

Subpoena to Detention Center Quashed

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 17, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Loudoun County Circuit Court grants a motion to quash a subpoena duces tecum seeking inmate records from the custodian at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center; the detention center, as an agent of the commonwealth, is a party to this case. Defendant contends employees of the commonwealth do not automatically qualify as agents of [...]

Sub’s Lien for Site Work Not Enforced

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 10, 2012
Tags: Contract, Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Loudoun County Circuit Court will not enforce a mechanic’s lien filed by a subcontractor seeking payment for site work and infrastructure improvements on a three-lot subdivision on lands owned by defendant Sycolin Center, after the general contractor filed for bankruptcy. Plaintiff’s Disclosure Statement pursuant to Va. Code § 43-3B claimed a total cost of [...]

Reconsideration OK for Review Committee

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 10, 2012
Tags: Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Real Estate, Virginia Circuit Courts

A local Historic District Review Committee’s rule allowing reconsideration of an application for approval of a design to build a house in the Village of Waterford, Va., was properly adopted, and the Loudoun County Circuit Court dismisses the applicant’s action for declaratory judgment and mandamus, but will allow her to amend her complaint to pursue [...]

Economic Loss Rule Bars Tort Claims

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 10, 2012
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

In a pharmaceutical company’s suit against another drug manufacturer, plaintiff’s claims for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and negligent supervision in defendant company’s development of a drug in its California lab for FDA approval and large-scale manufacture, a Loudoun Circuit Court says defendant’s duties to plaintiff derive from their contract and the tort claims are [...]

Remittitur Ordered After Land Transfer

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 30, 2012
Tags: Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Real Estate, Virginia Circuit Courts

In this dispute over property the parties formerly held as joint tenants with right of survivorship, the Loudoun County Circuit Court denies plaintiff’s request for rescission of her conveyance of her interest to defendant and orders a remittitur that requires defendant to pay plaintiff $20,000, instead of the $50,000 a jury said in 2008 that [...]

County Tax Assessments Upheld

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 30, 2012
Tags: Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Taxation, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Loudoun County Circuit Court denies an owner’s request for correction of the 2010 tax assessments on four contiguous parcels of land, both improved and unimproved, in the town of Leesburg, that the owner recently valued as one parcel for purposes of a transfer to a related entity. The owners says the assessments of the [...]

Discovery Ordered in Inverse Condemnation

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 30, 2012
Tags: Judge Thomas D. Horne, Rappahannock County Circuit Court, Real Estate, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Rappahannock County Circuit Court declines to strike Dominion Virginia Power’s defenses to a landowner’s action for inverse condemnation, but orders respondent to supplement its discovery responses. The owner’s counsel requested respondent to furnish certain data respecting both a calculation of the maximum electrostatic induction to the largest vehicle that may pass under two transmission [...]

No Equitable Estoppel for Homeowners’ Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 30, 2012
Tags: Contract, Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

Homeowners who had a new home built in 2003 and allege they had problems with the HVAC system as soon as they occupied the home in 2004 waited too long to sue the builder and HVAC subcontractor for breach of contract, unjust enrichment and negligence, injury to property; a Loudoun County Circuit Court says defendants [...]

Plaintiff May Depose School Officials

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 30, 2012
Tags: Civil Procedure, Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

In this suit against a school board, the Loudoun County Circuit Court grants petitioners leave to depose the school system’s director of planning & legislative services and its director of special education, but denies the request to depose four additional persons. The court finds with respect to the four interrogatories objected to, that the petitioners’ [...]