Where a teacher’s emails accused a co-worker and students of participating in a “coordinated effort” of taking unauthorized pictures and raised conspiratorial beliefs about surveillance by school employees, he was placed on administrative leave and required to undergo a fitness ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a failed job applicant alleged no facts showing that officials reviewing his resume and job applications were aware of his protected classes or protected activity, his discrimination claims failed as a matter of law. Background Plaintiff filed an EEO ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although the plaintiffs alleged the start/stop system is defective in all nonhybrid Audi models made between 2017-2020, their fraud claims against Volkswagen were dismissed because they failed to identify any information about the system that was suppressed or concealed. Instead, ...

Tagged with: Consumer Protection Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where an agreement between two parties waived consequential damages but one party breached that agreement and sued for damages between $30-90 million, the non-breaching party was entitled to recover over $1.6 million in attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in defending ...

Tagged with: Contract Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a background investigation revealed concerns about a high-school coach’s “lack of boundaries with students” and that same concern had been reflected in a previous performance evaluation, that was a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason why he was not hired for positions ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the bankruptcy court previously dismissed an adversarial complaint filed by the debtors against their bank as “baseless,” the court’s jurisdiction to interpret and enforce its own orders included resolving a second adversarial complaint filed by the same debtors against ...

Tagged with: Bankruptcy Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Norfolk federal judge has allowed litigation of some claims that a Virginia Beach spa qualifies for business interruption coverage under its State Farm policy since it was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision this month by U.S. ...

Tagged with: Business Business interruption Coronavirus Insurance Judge Leonie M. Brinkema