Where appellee, a surety company, issued performance and payment bonds to a construction company that later defaulted on its obligations, the surety lacks a priority interest in the company’s deposits held by appellee bank. The bank had a perfected security ...

Tagged with: Contract Judge Thomas P. Mann Supreme Court of Virginia

Where appellant sought records under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act relating to municipal employment disputes, the matter is remanded because, in making its rulings whether the requested records were exempt or nonexempt from disclosure, the trial court used “definitions ...

Tagged with: Judge Thomas P. Mann Supreme Court of Virginia VFOIA

Where defendant moved to quash a murder indictment because of the commonwealth’s untimely disclosure of exculpatory evidence, the court will deny the motion but will give the jury an adverse inference instruction regarding the evidence. Overview Defendant Gonzalez was indicted ...

Tagged with: Criminal Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann Virginia Circuit Courts

A Fairfax County judge has taken law enforcement to task for a nine-month delay in disclosing information helpful to the defense of a man charged with first-degree murder. “The Commonwealth buried its head in the sand,” wrote Circuit Judge Thomas ...

Tagged with: Criminal Discovery Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann Steve Descano

Where defendant is charged with sexual battery, the court denies his motion to admit the complaint’s statement made during sexual intimacy with defendant’s son that “she … would do anything to help her get ahead at work.’” Overview The trial ...

Tagged with: Criminal Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann Virginia Circuit Courts

Where plaintiff investors in a failed maternity clothing company sued the company and its two founders, the individual defendants’ demurrers to plaintiffs’ claims are sustained. Plaintiffs are granted leave to amend their complaint. Background Evans and Wilson were co-founders of ...

Tagged with: Corporate Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann Virginia Circuit Courts

Isatu Sheriff, 39, emigrated to the U.S. from Sierra Leone. For many years, she worked long hours in a nursing home as a certified nursing aide. As a result, she developed a bunion on her foot. A Kaiser podiatrist scheduled ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann Medical Malpractice Million-Dollar Verdicts

Where the parties are reading the same documents that form their contract but understanding the same writings in different but not unreasonable ways, the contracts are ambiguous and the trier of fact must resolve the ambiguity. The parties’ competing motions ...

Tagged with: Contract Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann Virginia Circuit Courts

The case involved a 33-year-old woman who underwent a lymph node biopsy in August 2011. During the procedure, the defendant ENT doctor transected the plaintiff’s spinal accessory nerve, causing permanent atrophy and paralysis of the trapezius muscle with significant pain, ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann Medical Malpractice Million-Dollar Verdicts

Patient, a 70-year-old Taiwanese woman, sought cosmetic surgery to remove the “puffiness” in her eyelids. She went to defendant (plastic surgeon) who recommended a blepharoplasty (a procedure to remove fat from her eyelids). During the blepharoplasty, defendant severed the tendon ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann Medical Malpractice Verdict