The court rejected the county board of supervisors’ reliance on the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to resist disclosure of closed-session discussions about the plaintiff’s termination, finding that federal law, not state law, governed. Addressing the board’s claims of attorney-client ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District

A plaintiff is entitled to actual and statutory damages, attorneys’ fees, and litigation costs arising from debt-collection calls she allegedly received from the defendant, who did not respond. Background Plaintiff Betty West’s lawsuit arises out of a series of interactions ...

Tagged with: Attorneys Fees Consumer Protection Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District

Plaintiff, a 57-year-old male construction supervisor, crashed into the defendant as she pulled away from a street parking space at about 25 miles per hour. Plaintiff felt pain in his neck immediately, and was advised to follow up with is ...

Tagged with: Judge Joel Hoppe Personal Injury Settlement U.S. District Court - Western District

Lawyers for a student who successfully challenged a sexual misconduct hearing at James Madison University should be paid nearly $850,000 by the school, a federal magistrate judge said. The school had argued the award should be less than half that ...

Tagged with: Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District

A Harrisonburg U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge recommends partially granting cross-motions for summary judgment in an engineering technician’s suit for denial of a common law right of fair procedure, based on allegations that he lost his job when his certification ...

Tagged with: Employment Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District

A Harrisonburg U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge recommends dismissal of a 69-year-old African-American male substitute teacher’s suit alleging race and age bias in defendant school system’s removal of him from the substitute list based on his alleged failure to follow ...

Tagged with: Employment Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District

In plaintiff life insurance company’s interpleader action to resolve competing claims to life insurance proceeds by decedent’s children and her former daughter-in-law, the Harrisonburg U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge denies summary judgment to the daughter-in-law; although decedent had only one ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District

A plaintiff does not state a claim for violation of his civil rights with allegations that defendant local officials forced him out as president of a community association in order to prepare a grant application for federal funds for improvement ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District

Defendant prison officials who destroyed surveillance video footage of a fight that occurred between an inmate and plaintiff inmate, who claims defendants violated his Eighth Amendment rights when they failed to intervene, should be subjected to sanctions for spoliation, a ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District

A Harrisonburg U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge recommends dismissal of this Title IX suit brought by a 65-year-old alumnus of James Madison University who alleges he was discriminated against when the university barred him from using JMU athletic facilities after ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Joel Hoppe U.S. District Court - Western District