Family settles birth injury claim for $25M

Coal Seller Can State Fraud Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 5, 2012
Tags: Judge James C. Turk, Tort, U.S. District Court - Western District

In this dispute over defendants’ follow-through on multi-million dollar contracts to buy plaintiff’s coal, a Roanoke U.S. District Court says plaintiff’s claim for fraud is supported by an allegation that defendant’s owner asserted he “had just returned from Asia and had contracts for delivery and therefore he could pay SCS for its coal product the [...]

Summary Judgment in Email Defamation Case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 19, 2012
Tags: Judge Louis Allen Sherman, Norfolk Circuit Court, Tort, Virginia Circuit Courts

In this Norfolk Circuit Court litigation alleging a health club personal trainer pursued a club member’s wife for a romantic relationship and the husband retaliated with complaints to the club and school where the trainer worked and the couple’s child attended, the husband wins summary judgment in the personal trainer’s counterclaims for defamation and tortious [...]

$21M Awarded to Somali Torture Victims

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 15, 2012
Tags: Judge Leonie Brinkema, Tort, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

After a bench trial on damages following defendant’s decision to accept a default judgment as to liability under the Alien Tort Statute and the Alien Torture Victim Protection Act, an Alexandria U.S. District Court awards $21 million to plaintiffs, natives of Somalia suing for damages arising from defendant’s responsibility for torturing individuals. Plaintiffs allege defendant [...]

Default Judgment for Defrauded Investor

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 3, 2012
Tags: Judge Anthony J. Trenga, Tort, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

After a partial default judgment and a bench trial on plaintiff investor’s damages from claims of fraud and RICO conspiracy against defendants who urged him to invest over $2 million in the “Old Navajo Foundation,” which was in fact a Ponzi scheme, an Alexandria U.S. District Court awards plaintiff fraud damages of $1.19 million; RICO [...]

Owners Have Trespass Claim for Storm Water Runoff

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 24, 2012
Tags: Justice Donald W. Lemons, Supreme Court of Virginia, Tort

Property owners may sue adjacent property owners on a theory of common law trespass, based on their claim that defendant owners developed their property in an unreasonable manner that removed vegetation and directed storm water runoff onto plaintiffs’ property; plaintiffs have stated a claim under Virginias’ modified common law rule applicable to surface water, and [...]

Marketing Company Did Not Defame Client

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 21, 2012
Tags: Judge John A. Gibney Jr., Tort, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this litigation arising from a computer vendor’s termination of a contract with a marketing company, neither side wins summary judgment on the vendor’s claim to commission refunds for returned products, but the Richmond U.S. District Court grants the marketing company summary judgment on the computer company’s claim for commercial defamation. In 2008, plaintiff Velocity [...]

No TRO for Blasting Damage Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 17, 2012
Tags: Judge James C. Turk, Tort, U.S. District Court - Western District

Plaintiffs who allege their 18th century colonial “Stone House” in Buchanan, Va., has suffered damage from defendant stone company’s blasting on nearby property, are not entitled to a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt activity, says a Roanoke U.S. District Court. Defendant operates a limestone mining plant adjacent to plaintiffs’’ property. Although the [...]

Punitives Award for Libel Reduced

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 10, 2012
Tags: Judge James C. Cacheris, Tort, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A dog trainer who won his libel claim against a defendant who disseminated through emails and Facebook allegations of animal cruelty against the trainer has his punitive damage award reduced from $60,000 to $15,000 by the Alexandria U.S. District Court. The jury also awarded plaintiff $7,500 compensatory damages on his libel claim and $7,500 compensatory [...]

Settlement reached in FTCA birth injury lawsuit – $25,184,489 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: September 10, 2012
Tags: Federal Courts, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Medical Malpractice, Million-Dollar Settlements, Tort

Capt. Andrew Cibula and Jennifer Cibula, parents of JC, sued the United States of America alleging that Navy physicians mismanaged Mrs. Cibula’s first pregnancy, thereby causing JC to suffer a catastrophic brain injury shortly before birth. Mrs. Cibula was taking prescribed medications and had a health condition that put her fetus at increased risk of [...]