The VLW Blog

A Norfolk city agency cannot collect contract damages against the supervisor of a “no-show” employee for the money the agency paid the absent employee, a Norfolk Circuit Court says. Virginia contract law does not provide a basis to hold a public employee liable for agency mismanagement, the court said. The Norfolk Community Services Board filed [...]

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James Madison University has settled the lawsuit that accused the school of raiding basketball recruits from a New York college after JMU hired that school’s coach. JMU will pay $100,000 to Marist College under terms of the settlement, reports the Poughkeepsie Journal. Marist sued both JMU and basketball coach Matt Brady in 2009, accusing Brady [...]

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An employee contract clause calling for a $100,000 annual benefit for a surviving spouse is ambiguous, prompting the 4th Circuit to vacate judgment against the employee’s widow and send the case back for another look. When Hampton Roads music promoter David Williams went to work for Cellar Door Management, or CDP Inc., in 1994, he [...]

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A company that approached Rockingham Memorial Hospital with a plan to boost its Medicare reimbursements failed to prove a binding contract for a percentage of the increased revenues, a federal appeals court found last week. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Friday affirmed dismissal of the suit brought by McKay Consulting Inc. seeking court [...]

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The contractor for the Clarksville bypass on U.S. 58 is due $12 million, $9.2 million less than he originally was awarded, Norfolk Circuit Judge Charles E. Poston has ruled. The Virginia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that Poston had erred in excusing AMEC Civil LLC from the formal requirements of [...]

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears the fewest oral arguments and issues the fewest published opinions of the federal circuit courts. Its decision earlier this week affirming a partnership deal for a TV series raises the question of just what its standard for publishing an opinion might be. This one appears to have [...]

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A cardiac surgeon who closed his Alabama practice to move to Virginia can try his claim against the hospital he thought had hired him as its new chief cardiac surgeon. Earlier this month, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated summary judgment for Rockingham Memorial Hospital and Cardiac & Thoracic Surgical Associates, the defendants [...]

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Virginia has avoided automatic liability to a New York college based on the failure to file a timely answer to a lawsuit over hiring of a James Madison University basketball coach. A New York judge last month vacated his earlier finding of default judgment against the commonwealth and JMU in the lawsuit filed by Marist [...]

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Breaking with other Virginia federal judges who have considered the issue, Roanoke U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson has decided the stricter “plausibility” standard used to judge civil complaints does not apply to affirmative defenses. The ruling may be cold comfort for a defendant in a contract dispute case where Wilson tossed the party’s counterclaims and [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia will get a chance to interpret Virginia Code Sec. 33.1-386, which requires a contractor to submit any claim for damages against the Virginia Department of Transportation “at the time of the occurrence or beginning of the work upon which the claim and subsequent action is based.” AMEC Civil LLC acknowledged [...]

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