Thursday, September 30, 2004

Fourth Circuit rules that Judge Brinkema went 0 for 6 in dismissing Virginia law claims

In T.G. Slater & Son, Inc. v. The Donald P. and Patricia A. Brennan LLC, the Fourth Circuit in an opinion by Judge Widener, joined by Judges Luttig and Traxler, ruled that the district court in dismissing all six of the plaintiff's counts for failure to state a claim was wrong on all six counts.

Since this is a Virginia law case, I expect it will get a lot of mileage in cases where plaintiffs are fighting off motions under Rule 12(b)(6). I'm not too sure about the discussion of the opinion dealing with fraud. The rules require that the circumstances of fraud must be alleged with particularity. The allegations cited don't appear to meet the standard from other Fourth Circuit cases dealing with Rule 9(b).

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