Posted by: thomas
on May 7, 2010
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In a recent case of first impression, argued and won by Thomas Dunlap and Mike Whitticar of Dunlap, Grubb, and Weaver, the Supreme Court of Virginia handed down an opinion which, for the first time, gave co-tenants the leverage they need against their uncooperative counterparts when making intangible improvements to their joint property.
The Court ruled that a co-tenant must pay for her share of improvements to real property even if she did not agree to the improvements, as long as the improvements increased the value of the property and that increase is realized through a subsequent sale.
Our firm defended three of the four siblings against the uncooperative sister in this case.
Four siblings owned a large plot of land as co-tenants in common located in Loudoun County, Virginia. Three of the four siblings paid for plans to subdivide the land into 68 plots in an amount of approximately $700,000. With the approval for the subdivision, the property was valued $8,895,000 and at only $4,800,000 undivided. Before the subdivision was built but after the plans were approved the market declined and the property was ultimately sold to a third party for $6,000,000.
Posted by: thomas
on Aug 18, 2009
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“The process of discovery is very simple.” Not so, Mr. Thoreau. While legal discovery may have been a simple matter back when the only written communications were those of an official or handwritten nature, times have changed. Before the advent of the computer things said or done were safely whispered or verbally discussed behind oak doors. In the twentieth century, things began to be recorded, stored, and often, inescapably archived on the hard drive memories of machines. This phenomenon has created a new body of evidence on which to predicate and prove or defend legal claims around the world. Bring together the electronic age with lawyers and senior executives hidebound in the tradition of pen and paper, and it transpires that many in the world legal community find themselves out of their depth.
Why understanding ESI is important
Electronic discovery, or colloquially “eDiscovery” has fast become the most expensive, most overlooked and least adapted to issue in modern commercial litigation. This paper is a brief entré for every business manager and their attorneys into the world of electronically stored information (“ESI”) and the danger it poses to the unwary in the context of litigation.
