Owners May Amend Property Demolition Suit

Court Upholds Board on Cell Tower

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 7, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, Municipal

In this appeal, we consider certain “prohibition” and “discrimination” challenges brought by a wireless telecommunications provider against a local governing body under a provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B)(i), and conclude the Fairfax County, Va., board of supervisors did not violate the Act in denying a request filed by T-Mobile [...]

Circuit Court Can’t Hear Disability Appeal

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 19, 2012
Tags: Justice William C. Mims, Municipal, Supreme Court of Virginia

In a county that has the urban executive form of government, Va. Code § 51.1-823 does not confer jurisdiction on a circuit court to hear a school board employee’s appeal of a denial of a request for service-connected disability benefits by the board of trustees of a retirement system that is not a police retirement [...]

Editorial: Keep public notices in print

By Paul Fletcher
Published: December 26, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Municipal

When the 2012 General Assembly convenes next month, expect to see several bills designed to change the time-tested way that people in the commonwealth keep informed about their government. The bills would change Virginia’s laws on public notices, moving them from the printed pages of newspapers across the commonwealth to electronic websites maintained by local [...]

Courts speak, lawyers listen

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 12, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Federal Courts, Intellectual Property, Municipal, Real Estate, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Tort, Virginia Court of Appeals News

A Virginia Supreme Court case that struck a noncompete clause used by a pest control company – the same clause upheld by the high court over 20 years ago – caused the most buzz during 2011 among Virginia lawyers who track legal developments through their blogs. Court watchers were charmed by the facts in Home [...]

Denial of Phone Tower Permit Questioned

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 30, 2011
Tags: Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, Municipal, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this litigation over location of a cell telephone tower, a Newport News U.S. District Court adopts a magistrate judge’s recommendation and grants partial summary judgment to plaintiff T-Mobile because the record has failed to demonstrate substantial evidence for denial of plaintiff’s conditional use permit; but the court denies summary judgment in reference to plaintiff’s [...]

State Funding for Intermodal Facility Upheld

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 10, 2011
Tags: Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Municipal, Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia says the Virginia Constitution does not forbid the use of state money to build a rail-to-truck cargo transfer facility in Montgomery County. The Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation (DRPT) entered into an agreement, pursuant to the Rail enhancement Fund created by Va. Code § 3.1-221.1:1.1, to grant funds [...]

Immunity on Rape Claim Against Officer

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 9, 2011
Tags: Judge John R. Doyle III, Municipal, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

A woman who alleges she was raped by the city police officer dispatched to her home in response to her call to be transported to a hospital because of breathing difficulties cannot sue the city on a claim of negligence, and the Norfolk Circuit Court grants the city’s plea of governmental immunity. Plaintiff alleges no [...]

Court Rules on ‘Transaction of Public Business’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 16, 2011
Tags: Judge Isaac St. C. Freeman, Municipal, Smyth County Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

In resolving petitioners’ request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to a former member of the Saltville Town Council for communications, including email communications, with a town employee between certain dates, the Smyth County Circuit Court considers what constitutes “transaction of public business” under the Act and says petitioner is entitled to information concerning [...]

No Absolute Immunity for Water Authority

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 2, 2011
Tags: Judge Clifford R. Weckstein, Municipal, Roanoke Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

Defendant Western Virginia Water Authority is a municipal corporation with no absolute sovereign immunity, and a landowner may sue the Authority for damages allegedly caused by the Authority’s negligent maintenance and operation of a sanitary sewer line; although the Roanoke City Circuit previously held that a water authority created by the county and city has [...]