Water, water everywhere, and double rates are OK

State & County Can Sue for Road Damage

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 13, 2011
Tags: Hanover County Circuit Court, Judge J. Overton Harris, Municipal, Virginia Circuit Courts

In this litigation arising from damages to a road allegedly due to problems with a Hanover County contract for improvements to Hanover Square, a Hanover County Circuit Court says this suit by the county and the commonwealth is timely filed and states claims against the original contractor’s successors in interest. This action arises out of [...]

City Could Demolish ‘Public Nuisance’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 9, 2011
Tags: Justice William C. Mims, Municipal, Supreme Court of Virginia

A building owner who did not appeal the city’s directive that his building be demolished because attempts to repair it had rendered it unsafe and a public nuisance cannot sue the city for damages, says the Supreme Court of Virginia; the law is well settled that abatement of a public nuisance by a public body [...]

Branch Loan Office May Get Lower BPOL Tax

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 8, 2011
Tags: Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Municipal, Supreme Court of Virginia

In a case involving an auto-financing company’s local branch in Chesterfield County, the Virginia Supreme Court says the county erred in including in the taxable measure for an assessment of BPOL taxes gross receipts attributable to services performed outside the county, instead of only those attributable to the exercise of the licensed privilege at a [...]

Municipal – Cell Phone Towers – Special Exception Permit

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 21, 2011
Tags: Judge Leonie Brinkema, Municipal, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment to defendant county, whose denial of a wireless communication company’s application for a special exception permit to build a wireless telecommunications facility on the grounds of the Mount Vernon Masonic Lodge #219, did not violate the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The board of supervisors’ decision to deny [...]

County Administrator Pays for Defamation, But County Wins Contract Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 18, 2011
Tags: Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr., Municipal, Supreme Court of Virginia

A county administrator had only a qualified privilege in his report during a board of supervisors’ meeting that a former parks director allegedly “suppressed” information about the likelihood of flooding at the county museum, and because the administrator did not show the board was meeting in its legislative capacity, the Supreme Court of Virginia upholds [...]

Closed Meeting Violated FOIA

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 17, 2011
Tags: Judge Jay T. Swett, Municipal, Virginia Circuit Courts, Westmoreland County Circuit Court

Local officials violate Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act when they went into a closed meeting for discussion of a proposed contract with a counterterrorism training company that wants to build a training facility and academy in the county, a Westmoreland County Circuit Court says. After the meeting, a request was made of Robert Fink, county [...]

School Board Ordered to Produce Records

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 17, 2011
Tags: Judge Norman A. Thomas, Municipal, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Norfolk Circuit Court says a school board must produce records related to an investigation of a middle school’s testing procedures in response to a newspaper’s FOIA request, but the school board may exclude from production any individual records considered in toto or in part a scholastic record or a personnel record, with information on [...]

Municipal – Animal Care – Adoption – Injunction

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 30, 2010
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Robert J. Smith, Municipal, Virginia Circuit Courts

A woman whose 17 dogs and one horse were removed from her care on a charge of mistreatment and abandonment cannot obtain an injunction against the county to prevent the adoption of some of the animals, says the Fairfax Circuit Court. The county argues the district court entered a final order on Jan. 3, 2005, [...]

Municipal – Land Use – Cell Phone Towers

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 30, 2010
Tags: Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Municipal, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A county’s denial of plaintiff T-Mobile’s two land use applications for permission to install three antenna panels on a 10-foot extension of an existing 100-foot cell phone transmission pole does not violate the Telecommunications Act of 1996, says an Alexandria U.S. District Court. The court concludes the board of supervisors’ denial of T-Mobile’s applications does [...]