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Elderly woman slipped on slick restaurant floor – $750,000 Settlement
On Dec. 11, 2016, the 83-year-old plaintiff went to lunch with her family at a Richmond area restaurant after church services. Shortly after checking in at the hostess stand, the hostess asked the plaintiff and her party to follow her to their table. As soon as the plaintiff began to walk from the hostess stand […]
Council Discipline Vote Violated VFOIA
Members of Portsmouth city council violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act by delivering to a council member, without a public vote, a letter disciplining him for a public announcement on Facebook that council would meet in closed session to discuss topics including the city’s “Confederate War monument as it pertains to the Danville case,” […]
Harmless error rule allows use of ‘de facto will’
Virginia lawyers have had a tool to validate wills that fail to meet the strict requirements of authenticity for almost nine years. Lawyers report increasing use of what has been called the “harmless error rule” for wills that don’t quite live up to the old probate standards. ‘De facto wills’ possible Legislation signed into […]
Sibling Conflict Leads to Conservator
A Henrico Circuit Court orders two sisters acting as trustees of their mother’s trust to reimburse the trust for their legal fees in successfully defending a separate defamation action filed by their brother, a trust beneficiary; because of conflict among the siblings, the court appoints a conservator for the mother, as the sisters have withdrawn […]
Family fight: Seven suits in three different courts
Siblings who traded accusations over use of their mother’s money have spent thousands on legal fees, and the legal wrangling is still not over. A son is fighting with two sisters, both sides claiming the other breached duties under a trust set up to control the family money. The dispute has fostered seven lawsuits in […]
Court Won’t Probate ‘Fake’ Will
In this will contest between decedent’s niece and his widow, the Henrico County Circuit Court concludes the 2012 will proffered by the widow is a fake created after his death, but it will admit to probate a photocopy of an earlier will, originally handwritten but then typed by a relative and signed by decedent and […]
Photocopy of handwritten will prevails in international dispute
A will contest with an international flavor was resolved in a Henrico County courtroom last month when a judge concluded that a formally executed will offered by a widow, backed by two witnesses, was just “an elaborate fake.” Henrico Circuit Judge Catherine C. Hammond decided that – considering the “preposterous circumstances” surrounding the widow’s will […]
Auto Liability Policy Voided for Arrest Record
An auto liability policy is void because the applicant, a sole proprietor who applied as “Kitchens Unlimited LLC,” had a criminal record but denied he had ever been arrested; the Henrico Circuit Court grants judgment to plaintiff insurance carrier in this dec action filed by the applicant and the severely injured plaintiff with whom he […]
Wife Wants Annulment, Husband Gets Divorce
An American citizen wife who met her Indian national husband through the Internet and married him in Henrico and then again five months later in an “elaborate religious wedding” in India is not entitled to an annulment on the ground that the marriage was not consummated; a Henrico Circuit Court says failure to consummate the […]
Little consensus on response to decline in jury trials
HOT SPRINGS–Lawyers and judges lament the decline in the number of jury trials, but find little common ground on what to do about the trend – or whether anything needs to be done at all. “If you lose the jury trial, the system dies,” said Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald W. Lemons, expressing a sentiment […]
Pretrial motions practice, more or less?
Metropolitan Richmond area judges came up with a wish list for motions practice at the area bar associations’ annual bench-bar conference in Richmond on Oct. 21. Chesterfield General District Court Judge Pamela O’Berry sounded a little wistful when she said her court would like to see a few more well-crafted motions. The GDC judges occasionally […]
Contract – Guaranty – Magazine Advertising
A publishing company that provided magazine advertising to a business, “California Closets,” cannot collect on the contract from an hourly employee who signed a personal guaranty that was part of the advertising contract, as the publishing company has not shown that the employee received any consideration for her personal guaranty, in this case from Henrico […]
Verdicts & Settlements
- Plaintiff injured in crash with oncoming vehicle — $235,000 settlement
- Driver killed in rear-end collision with tractor-trailer — $1.5M settlement
- Man died from pancreatic cancer after delayed response — $1.8M settlement
- Worker fell off roof, rendering him a paraplegic — $1.25M settlement
- Driver sustained permanent hearing loss after traffic collision — $240,000 settlement
- Plaintiff suffered concussion in rear-end collision — $81,000 verdict
- Builder misrepresented home status to buyers — $675,000 verdict
- Low potassium led to cardiac arrest, death of patient — $1M settlement
- Excessive propofol caused death in dialysis patient — $850,000 settlement
- Pedestrian struck in crosswalk in hit-and-run incident — $300,000 settlement
- Navy veteran killed in collision with box truck — $1.85M arbitration award
- Motorcyclist ejected from bike in collision with SUV — $1.5M settlement
Opinion Digests
- Company owner dodges breach of contract suit
- Employee’s own allegations doom minimum wage claim
- Federal government defeats former employee’s claims
- Principal wasn’t entitled to exclusively remote work
- USPTO properly redacted info in responsive documents
- Untimely lawsuit allowed to proceed
- Engineering consultant dismissed from suit
- Rule 60 motion was filed too late
- Nonprofit directors immune from ex-employees’ claims
- City, employees immune from whistleblower claims
- Experts excluded in condemnation damages suit
- Judgment entered against company for horse’s death
