Even though the owner’s manual for a pressure cooker contained a written disclaimer of the implied warranty of merchantability that stated all required text, a federal court has found the disclaimer was not conspicuous as a matter of law. “A ...
Read More »Warranty disclaimer not sufficiently conspicuous
Supreme Court: Emotional distress damages not available under Title VI, Title IX, other Spending Clause statutes 
In Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller, PLLC, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a plaintiff suing under Title VI (prohibiting race, color, and national origin discrimination), Title IX (prohibiting sex discrimination), the Rehabilitation Act (prohibiting disability discrimination) and the Patient ...
Read More »Marked up: Homeowners claim designer allegedly inflated expenses 
A breach of contract claim brought by out-of-state homeowners against a Virginia interior designer has survived a motion to dismiss. The homeowners claimed the designer inflated expenses without their knowledge and that they had to spend tens of thousands of ...
Tagged with: Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. U.S. District Court - Eastern District
Read More »Contract not void under statute of frauds 
A federal court has rejected a public housing authority’s argument that an unsigned contract for security services was void due to the statute of frauds and the Virginia Public Procurement Act, or VPPA. Because there was no dispute about the ...
Tagged with: Judge Norman K. Moon U.S. District Court - Western District
Read More »Trust not subject to mandatory arbitration 
The denial of a trustee’s motion to compel arbitration pursuant to a clause in the trust has been affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court. The court concluded that a trust is not a contract subject to mandatory arbitration under the ...
Tagged with: Justice Stephen R. McCullough Supreme Court of Virginia
Read More »Retaining talent amid the Great Resignation 
The Great Resignation — a massive reshuffling ongoing in the U.S. labor market — has created a new and very competitive economic reality in which American employers struggle to fill a record number of open jobs. According to the U.S. ...
Read More »ID theft, fraud statute may be applied to witness tampering 
A federal criminal statute that prohibits the unlawful use of identification information may be applied to a defendant accused of tampering with a witness. Judge Norman K. Moon of the Western District of Virginia denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss, ...
Tagged with: Judge Norman K. Moon U.S. District Court - Western District Witness tampering
Read More »Restitution order vacated: Court must assess ‘cryptic’ benefits on remand 
The Virginia Court of Appeals has vacated a criminal restitution order after finding that the trial court abused its discretion by combining two insurance benefits to measure the value of property lost by an arson victim. The “record does not ...
Read More »Men can’t testify as experts in own suit 
Two men who wanted to testify as security experts in their own suit against an amusement park were barred from doing so after a federal judge found that they “are not qualified by experience to offer expert opinions, nor have ...
Read More »CEO’s renewed promise restarts contractual limitations period 
Where a sales contract contained a one-year limitations period for related causes of action, and the CEO of a party allegedly signed a document in which he admitted his company’s obligations under the contract and agreed to make monthly payments, ...
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