An almost $11 million settlement for a toddler who suffered a severe head injury after falling from a hotel balcony presented a conundrum on the timing of the lawsuit. The boy was two years old when he ventured onto a ...

Tagged with: Million-Dollar Settlements Norfolk Circuit Court Personal Injury Premises Liability

A business auto liability policy at issue was a “renewal” and not a “new” policy, and the Norfolk Circuit Court rejects plaintiff’s claim that he had additional UIM coverage. Plaintiff has filed this declaratory judgment action seeking a determination that ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

A defendant’s claim that his lawyer told him he would get three to five years for pleading guilty to robbery, but who was sentenced to 19 years, was corroborated by his brother, mother, another defendant who overheard defendant’s bullpen conversation ...

Tagged with: Criminal Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

The 2-year-old plaintiff was severely injured at a hotel when he fell through a second floor balcony railing landing head first on the pavement below. The balcony railing was missing a vertical bar, resulting in a 12-inch-wide opening. The plaintiff ...

Tagged with: Million-Dollar Settlements Norfolk Circuit Court Personal Injury Premises Liability

Owners of the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel and Convention Center lose their challenge to the city’s real estate tax assessments for tax years 2009 through 2011, on their theory that the city, in determining fair market value of the properties, ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles E. Poston Norfolk Circuit Court Taxation Virginia Circuit Courts

Defendant police officers have satisfied the four-part test for sovereign immunity and the Norfolk Circuit Court grants their special plea in bar filed in response to plaintiff’s negligence suit. Virginia applies the test from James v. Jane, 221 Va. 43 ...

Tagged with: Judge James P. Jones Negligence Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

Although a rental company employee who delivered sanitation equipment to a job site spent several extra hours assembling the custom equipment, he is not a statutory employee of defendant construction company, and the Norfolk Circuit Court overrules defendant’s special plea ...

Tagged with: Judge Jerrauld C. Jones Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts Workers' Compensation

Looking to case law on a similar corporate statute in North Carolina, a Norfolk Circuit Court sets a multi-part test for a minority shareholder’s “written demands” to a corporation required before filing a derivative action, and finds plaintiff met the ...

Tagged with: Corporate Judge John R. Doyle III Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

In defendant’s prosecution on firearm possession charges, the Norfolk Circuit Court denies defendant’s motions to estop the commonwealth from subsequent prosecution or from introducing evidence previously adjudicated during the trial in which defendant was acquitted of murder and use of ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Charles E. Poston Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

In litigation arising from an officer’s automobile collision with another vehicle, the Norfolk Circuit Court will allow plaintiff to amend the complaint to allege gross negligence. Gross negligence means something more than lack of ordinary care. The court defines gross ...

Tagged with: Judge Junius P. Fulton III Negligence Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts