Spring 2012
Beware: Black Ice and the Court of Appeals
By John W. Leonard
As temperatures grew colder and winter began becoming a reality, Maryland’s highest court chose an appropriate time to issue its decision in Poole v. Coakley & Williams Construction, Inc. (No. 130, September Term, 2010). In retrospect, this past winter may not be one that is remembered for record breaking snowfall or extreme…
Recent Developments - Maryland
Spangler v. McQuitty
The Court of Appeals recently decided a procedural quagmire involving the death of a plaintiff after judgment in his favor but prior to the resolution of post-trial motions to reduce the amount of the verdict. Subsequent to the plaintiff’s death, the defendant argued the plaintiff’s estate should not be entitled…
Thomas v. Panco Management of Md., LLC
Maryland has recently seen a drastic overhaul of its premises liability law involving injuries on snow and ice. One Court of Appeals decision responsible for this new direction of case law is Thomas v. Panco Management. The case involved a woman’s claim for injuries as a result of a slip and…
Univ. of Md. Med. Sys. Corp. v. Muti
In Univ. of Md. Med. Sys. Corp. v. Muti, 2012 Md. LEXIS 74 (Feb. 21, 2012) the Court of Appeals held that the failure to name a beneficiary as a use plaintiff in a wrongful death action did not require dismissal under Maryland law. The case involved a wrongful death action brought…
Recent Developments - Virginia
Bowman v. Concepcion
A medical malpractice plaintiff who does not attempt to serve a defendant in order to comply with statutory expert certification requirements does not have good cause to delay service beyond a year. The Supreme Court held that the trial court did not err in requiring plaintiff to show that she…
Wakole v. Barber
In revisiting the purpose of closing arguments, the Virginia Supreme Court recently held that a plaintiff can place numerical values on noneconomic damages. In 1959, in Certified T.V. $ Appliance Co., Inc. v. Harrington, the Court had ruled that a plaintiff could not make per diem arguments (an assertion that plaintiff’s…
Recent Developments - District of Columbia
Employment Discrimination and Motions in Limine
In what was an otherwise unremarkable Title VII case, alleging a hostile work environment, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia made some interesting observations about the nature and purpose of a motion in limine and implemented an effective method for developing the record so that a clearer…
Tort Law- Jury Instructions for Violations of Traffic Laws as Indicator of Negligence Per Se
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals considered the jury instruction that a violation of an applicable traffic regulation would constitute negligence per se in the recent opinion of Sibert-Dean v. WMATA. Although WMATA had originally proposed the per se instruction, it objected to those same instructions just prior to jury…
Evolving Psychological Injury Standards in the District of Columbia
Over the last five years, the legal landscape for claims of psychological injury has changed dramatically. In 2008,the long-standing “objective standard” of gauging whether a putative “ordinary employee” would have experienced the same consequences was abandoned in favor of direct link to the actual injury. Where the injury is psychological,…
About the Firm
About the Firm
Chris Dunn has been appointed by the Maryland Court of Appeals to the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, which is a prominent position in the state of Maryland court system. The Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, often referred to as the “Rules Committee,” was formed…