Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Although the plaintiff’s choice of venue would ordinarily be entitled to great weight, several factors tipped the balance in favor of transfer to California, including the location of the defendant company’s headquarters, the location of key witnesses, and the small ...

Tagged with: Business Law Civil Procedure Class Action Judge M. Hannah Lauck U.S. District Court - Eastern District

This court granted judgment by default against all three Defendants for $85,851, attorney’s fees, and costs. After the Plaintiffs attempted to execute the judgment several times, the Defendants moved to set aside the default judgment on four grounds. The court ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Contract Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. Norfolk Circuit Court Real Estate Real Property Virginia Circuit Courts

A manufacturer stated a claim for defamation against the project-management company for whom it had provided turbines, based on oblique comments about “quality control” made by the company’s CEO on its shareholder earnings call. Background In this action, Plaintiff Fluor ...

Tagged with: Business Law Contract Judge M. Hannah Lauck Personal Injury Tort U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Experts’ calculation and application of statistical significance (p-values) must be relevant, reliable, and not likely to confuse jurors. After plaintiffs’ expert opinions were excluded, their non-expert evidence was not sufficient to survive summary judgment, and the district court appropriately granted ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Procedure Evidence Judge Albert Diaz Personal Injury

A company waived the confidentiality of its business information presented at trial. First Amendment principles and the company’s failure to follow Local Rule 5(C) also weighed against sealing the records. Background In this products liability action, a jury trial was ...

Tagged with: Business Law Civil Procedure Constitutional First Amendment Judge Robert E. Payne Public Records U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An insurer could not enforce an indemnification clause in its insured’s architectural contract because provisions requiring contractors to indemnify other parties for negligence are void in their entirety under Code § 11-4.1. Background Defendant Lessard Design Inc. provides architectural services, including ...

Tagged with: Business Law Construction Contract Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District

After a $12 million jury award on breach-of-contract and fraudulent inducement claims, the circuit court did not err in vacating the verdict. Lost profits are not recoverable for a fraudulent inducement claim when they are premised on the unenforceable provisions ...

Tagged with: Business Law Contract Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Supreme Court of Virginia

The district court’s full jury instructions on mutual assent were a correct statement of Virginia law and not in error. Background Appellants Knox Energy LLC and Consol Energy Inc. filed this action seeking declaratory judgment that a drilling contract with ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Business Law Contract Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

After credit cards were fraudulently opened in their names, a class of optometrists alleged an injury in fact traceable to their professional organization. Background In July 2016, optometrists across the nation noticed that Chase Amazon Visa credit card accounts had ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Contract Judge Robert B. King Standing Tort

A foreign company could not establish common-law trademark rights in the United States for the domain “klumba.com” because no American citizens used the company’s service. Hosting Google AdSense on the company’s Ukrainian site also didn’t put its mark in U.S. ...

Tagged with: Business Law Consumer Protection Intellectual Property Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District