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Toddler suffered brain injury in fall from hotel balcony – $10,900,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: May 20, 2013
Tags: Million-Dollar Settlements, Norfolk Circuit Court, Personal Injury, Premises Liability

The 2-year-old plaintiff was severely injured at a hotel when he fell through a second floor balcony railing landing head first on the pavement below. The balcony railing was missing a vertical bar, resulting in a 12-inch-wide opening. The plaintiff suffered a skull fracture and a right subdural hematoma. Emergency surgery was performed by Dr. [...]

Expert Testimony Can’t Overturn Hotel Taxes

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Judge Charles E. Poston, Norfolk Circuit Court, Taxation, Virginia Circuit Courts

Owners of the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel and Convention Center lose their challenge to the city’s real estate tax assessments for tax years 2009 through 2011, on their theory that the city, in determining fair market value of the properties, failed to take into account the economic downturn that started in late 2007 and caused [...]

Officers Have Immunity from Suit

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Judge James P. Jones, Negligence, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

Defendant police officers have satisfied the four-part test for sovereign immunity and the Norfolk Circuit Court grants their special plea in bar filed in response to plaintiff’s negligence suit. Virginia applies the test from James v. Jane, 221 Va. 43 (1980), in order to determine whether a government actor is entitled to sovereign immunity. This [...]

No ‘Comp bar” from Equipment Assembly

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Judge Jerrauld C. Jones, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts, Workers' Comp

Although a rental company employee who delivered sanitation equipment to a job site spent several extra hours assembling the custom equipment, he is not a statutory employee of defendant construction company, and the Norfolk Circuit Court overrules defendant’s special plea in bar of the Workers’ Compensation Act. The parties have stipulated that sanitation, the work [...]

Court Sets Test for Prior ‘Written Demand’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Corporate, Judge John R. Doyle III, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

Looking to case law on a similar corporate statute in North Carolina, a Norfolk Circuit Court sets a multi-part test for a minority shareholder’s “written demands” to a corporation required before filing a derivative action, and finds plaintiff met the test for all his claims except his claim that defendants usurped corporate opportunities by developing [...]

No Collateral Estoppel on Firearm Charge

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 10, 2013
Tags: Criminal, Judge Charles E. Poston, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

In defendant’s prosecution on firearm possession charges, the Norfolk Circuit Court denies defendant’s motions to estop the commonwealth from subsequent prosecution or from introducing evidence previously adjudicated during the trial in which defendant was acquitted of murder and use of a firearm charges arising from the same incident. On Oct. 26, 2012, a jury acquitted [...]

Plaintiff May Amend for ‘Gross Negligence’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 10, 2013
Tags: Judge Junius P. Fulton III, Negligence, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

In litigation arising from an officer’s automobile collision with another vehicle, the Norfolk Circuit Court will allow plaintiff to amend the complaint to allege gross negligence. Gross negligence means something more than lack of ordinary care. The court defines gross negligence as a degree of negligence which shows an utter disregard of prudence amounting to [...]

No Drywall Damages for Mortgage Payments

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 10, 2013
Tags: Judge Mary Jane Hall, Norfolk Circuit Court, Real Estate, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Norfolk Circuit Court grants defendants’ motion in limine to exclude evidence of mortgage payments on homes that were unlivable as a result of the presence of Chinese drywall, as mortgage payments are not a proper measure of loss of use damages. Defendant claims this element of damages was not disclosed in discovery responses provide [...]

Missed Diagnosis Claim Not ‘Gross Negligence’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 10, 2013
Tags: Judge Mary Jane Hall, Medical Malpractice, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Norfolk Circuit Court sustains a demurrer to a gross negligence claim filed by the estate of a woman who allegedly died as a result of the defendant resident physician’s failure to diagnose the woman’s ectopic pregnancy; the Norfolk Circuit Court sustains defendant physician’s demurrer to the gross negligence claim, but overrules the special plea [...]