The VLW Blog

Taboada v. Daily Seven, the premises liability case that greatly expanded the potential liability of hotel operators, has been settled. The case is perhaps better known for the intemperate petition for a rehearing filed by a Roanoke attorney that earned him a contempt citation and a fine from the Virginia Supreme Court.

The Roanoke Times has an excellent account of the case and its significance with links to the Supreme Court opinions and an earlier article.

Two big names in Roanoke’s legal community have changed addresses.

Frank Flippin and Doug Densmore, late of the firm that bears their names – LeClairRyan Flippin Densmore – have joined Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore LLP.

Both attorneys were founding members of Flippin Densmore Morse & Jessee, which was established in 1996. That firm merged with Richmond-based LeClairRyan in 2004 to become LeClairRyan Flippin Densmore.

Both men are business lawyers and Gentry Locke’s managing partner, Mike Pace, said in a release that their addition “greatly expands the depth and breadth of the firm’s expertise in all areas of business law.”

Flippin also is a past president of the Virginia Bar Association and past chair of the Virginia State Bar’s Business Law Section.

Densmore, who practices in the areas of corporate banking and securities law, has been a member of the Treasury Board of the Commonwealth of Virginia since 2005.

A Roanoke general district judge has given 30 days in jail to a guy accused of ordering, then not paying for, a bowl of chili at the Texas Tavern.

The Texas Tavern is the only 24-hour restaurant in downtown Roanoke.

The tab for the chili was $1.66. The accused man, Charles B. Ogle, testified that he left $2 on the counter before leaving. A surveillance video shows Ogle angrily arguing with a Tavern employee after the incident.

But Judge Skip Burkart said the video could be of a guy wrongly accused or a guy upset that he got caught. Burkart gave Ogle 30 days, 26 suspended, on a misdemeanor charge of defrauding the restaurant.

The Roanoke Times reports that Ogle has appealed his conviction to circuit court. Stay tuned.

Salem lawyer Chris Clemens has garnered endorsements from three Roanoke-area bar groups for a general district judgeship that will open next year after the retirement of Judge Julian Raney, reports the Roanoke Times.

The Roanoke Bar Association and the Salem/Roanoke County Bar Association have endorsed Clemens. The Roanoke Valley Chapter of the Virginia Women Attorneys Association found both Clemens and Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell to be “highly recommended.”

Nine candidates have expressed interest in the seat.

Retired Judge Jack Coulter died last Thursday at the age of 83. He served on the 23rd Circuit, covering Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem, from 1973 to 1989. In the 1980s, Judge Coulter twice was under consideration for a seat on the Supreme Court of Virginia. The judge practiced law with his son Philip in Roanoke after leaving the bench.

The Roanoke Times has the story.

Any number of divorcing couples has learned – usually the hard way – that you can’t use child support as a bargaining chip in trying to strike a deal on a property settlement agreement.

A couple in Roanoke is the latest to get this lesson. In Wykle v. Wykle (VLW 007-8-130), the husband and wife entered into a PSA: The dad, “in lieu of” paying child support, would pay the first and second mortgages on the house where the mom and their minor daughter, Savannah, lived until the girl turned 21.

As some point, the dad decided he didn’t like this arrangement and moved to have the PSA declared to be unenforceable. The mom argued that the dad was supporting his daughter by paying the mortgage.

But Roanoke Circuit Judge Charles N. Dorsey struck the PSA. He found that the arrangement, which called for the payment of fixed mortgage payments, deprived the court of its jurisdiction to modify or enforce child support. That violated one of the tests set out in Shoup v. Shoup, the 2001 case from the Court of Appeals on the issue.

As a result, the agreement was unenforceable. Motion granted.

Thomas Mason served in the Navy during World War II with a young Bostonian named John F. Kennedy. In 1962, when he was in the White House and there was opening in the U.S. Attorney’s post in Roanoke, Kennedy named his old friend to the job, where Mason served until 1969. Mason died March 8 at the age of 88. Friends recalled that in addition to his legal work, he was an actor who relished the role of Elwood P. Dowd, the guy who can see “Harvey.” The Roanoke Times has an appreciation.