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Judge Dennis Lee Hupp

Dec 13, 2016

Pressured Wife Did Not ‘Abandon’ Spouse

Although a woman left the marital home six weeks before husband died, and moved in with her daughter to avoid her terminally ill husband’s pres­sure to sign documents reducing her property rights, a Shenandoah County Circuit Court says she did not abandon husband and is not disqualified under Va. Code § 64.2-310 from an election […]

Mar 21, 2014

Jury found decedent’s 2012 holographic will to be invalid – Verdict for Plaintiffs

Plaintiffs alleged that a self-proving will dated Oct. 7, 2004, was the last true will and testament of the decedent. That will divided the decedent’s estate fairly equally between her three children, Carroll Mauck (defendant) and Roxie Lutz and Bobbie Holler (plaintiffs). The 2004 will also made a provision for Lutz’s son to receive certain […]

Oct 2, 2013

Will contest leads to order for exhumation

Citing “red flags of giant proportions,” a circuit judge has ordered the exhumation of a Shenandoah County man who died in 2011 and whose $2 million estate is at issue in a will contest.

Mar 18, 2013

Treatment of colon impaction led to perforation, plaintiff claims – Defense Verdict

Plaintiff, a female in her mid-fifties with a family history of cancer, was referred for colon cancer screening/ colonoscopy in July 2003. The procedure was terminated for fear of perforation. Barium enema was then recommended and performed the following day with noted findings of sigmoid diverticulosis and retained stool. Plaintiff presented to the emergency department […]

Oct 4, 2012

Referendum Request Rejected by Court

A motion for protective order filed by the Virginia Resources Authority is rendered moot, says a Shenandoah County Circuit Court, and the court sustains in part and overrules in part the VRA’s plea in bar in the present suit seeking a referendum requiring voter approval for financing of the Rappahannock-Shenandoah-Warren Regional Jail. I sustain the […]

Aug 13, 2012

Father entitled to pay child support with equity in marital home – $25,200 Verdict

In this case, the parties entered into a written agreement in 2007 that the father would deed to the mother the former marital home in exchange for $300 per month credit towards his child support obligation for seven years, for a total of $25,200. Four years later, the mother sued the father for contempt and […]

Jan 16, 2012

Courts struggle with which parent should pay for private school in divorce

The Virginia Court of Appeals offered guidelines 16 years ago for judges on when a spouse can be forced to pay for a child to attend private school. But battles over tuition bills have continued in Virginia divorce courts. When a parent questions the obligation to pay the extra money for private school, judges often […]

Jan 12, 2012

Drug-Abusing Parent Loses Rights

The Court of Appeals upholds termination of a mother’s parental rights to her three children, a decision supported by mother’s history of substance abuse and the prior removal of the children from the home. After finding that father abused and neglected A. and that mother neglected A., the trial court found that twins E. and […]

Jan 11, 2012

Parties Switch Roles, Split Marital Estate

In a 23-year marriage in which wife at first stayed home with the children, then went back to school and worked as a nurse, and husband then stayed home to care for the family and to provide the labor to make improvements on real estate the parties purchased, a Warren County Circuit Court says the […]

Nov 7, 2011

Suit claiming surgery too soon after medication fails – Defense Verdict

Plaintiff was scheduled to undergo percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN) by the defendant, an interventional radiologist. The purpose of the PCN was to provide plaintiff’s urologist access to the left kidney for calculus removal. Plaintiff had a significant past medical history, including coronary artery disease, cardiac catheterization with stenting and pulmonary emboli. He was taking daily Coumadin [[...]

Sep 1, 2010

Employment – Public Employee – Wrongful Discharge – Bowman

A Warren County fraud investigator for a local services department can sue her employer for wrongful discharge under a Bowman exception to the employment-at-will doctrine, based on allegations that her employer prevented her investigation of fraud cases and her cooperation with the prosecutor, and that her grand jury appearance contributed to her termination. I sustain […]

Aug 20, 2010

Tort – Real Estate – Trespass – Boundary Dispute

Although defendant did not know he had trespassed on his neighbor’s land when he removed a fence and changed the location of a stream, those actions nevertheless showed a willful and wanton or reckless disregard for the rights of others, and a Shenandoah County Circuit Court says the fence can stay but defendant must relocate […]

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