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For those who practice in the courts of the Virgin Islands, there is a weary acceptance that justice will come, but it might not come quickly.  Sometimes—either due to the complexity of a case or a court’s congested docket—a motion or petition will linger on a judge’s docket for months or (in extreme cases) even years.  In these situations, a litigant has only two choices:  Sit back and wait for a ruling or try to get the case moving with a writ of mandamus.Continue Reading No Escape from Limbo: The Virgin Islands Supreme Court Denies a Writ of Mandamus

Summary judgment is a decision by the judge that the claim asserted has no factual issues that need to be given to the jury, and the case may be decided as a matter of law. This rids the court of factually unsupported claims and defenses where one of the parties convinces the judge that the factual issues either do not exist or they are not material, thereby avoiding trial and allowing the judge to make the decision.  Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56 speaks to this type of motion and states that summary judgment may be entered after adequate time for discovery against the party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s case, which that party would bear the burden of proof at trial.Continue Reading Summary Judgment Used to Filter Out Unsupported Claims

Stotesbury v. Pirate Duck Adventure, LLC, Slip Copy, 2013 WL 5508131 (D.V.I. October 1, 2013).

In a recent case in the District Court of the Virgin Islands, Division of St. Thomas-St. John, Defendants sought to exclude portions of Plaintiffs’ proposed experts’ testimony. Senior District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose of the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands, applying Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), wrote that in order to decide Defendants’ motions to exclude expert testimony the trial court judge must determine whether the proposed expert will testify to expert knowledge that will assist the trier of fact to understand or determine a fact at issue. This means that a preliminary assessment must be conducted of whether the reasoning or methodology underlying the testimony is scientifically valid and of whether that reasoning or methodology properly can be applied to the facts in issue.

Continue Reading Evaluating the Admissibility of Expert Testimony

In a recent case, the Appellant, Hani Khalil, asked the Supreme Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands to hear his argument concerning the Superior Court’s orders, which ruled on his motion in opposition to a motion for attorney’s fees and prejudgment interest filed by the Appellee, Guardian Insurance Company. Continue Reading Rules Are Meant to be Followed, Especially When Appealing a Case

A preliminary injunction is a court order where a party is instructed to perform, or is restrained from performing, a specific act. A preliminary injunction is deemed to be an extraordinary remedy, which is reserved for special situations where it is necessary to maintain the status quo for a period of time.Continue Reading The Third Circuit Holds that a Statement that the Motion is “Moot” Needs Factual Support

The Appellant Dawn Prosser appealed from a judgment of the District Court in favor of James Carroll, the Chapter 7 Trustee of the bankruptcy estate of Jeffrey Prosser, Dawn’s husband. Dawn challenged the District Court’s denial of her motion to dismiss, as well as other pleadings. She argued that the court erroneously allowed recovery for transfers of property made more than two years before the bankruptcy petition was filed, and that the Trustee failed to prove the post-petition transfers were out of the ordinary course of business.Continue Reading Motions Screech to a Halt in Attempt to Keep Money from Creditors

In a previous post, I offered tips on how to avoid foreclosure.  Most of those suggestions centered on how a mortgage borrower should talk to the mortgage lender at the onset of financial difficulties.  But what alternatives do borrowers have if they are already in active foreclosure litigation and they don’t qualify for loan modification programs such as the Home Affordable Modification Program (known as HAMP)?  In that case, a borrower’s options narrow considerably, but a few options might remain open.Continue Reading Settling Foreclosure

Curtis V. Gomez, Chief Judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands, recently heard a motion by the plaintiffs to substitute a party in the matter of Richards v. Marshall.  The action was initiated in 2009. Plaintiffs Barbara Richards and several other tenants ("Tenants") alleged that they sustained various injuries after being exposed to toxic mold allegedly present in a building owned by the defendants, Alfred Marshall and Sydney Katz, doing business as A & S Realty Associates (“A & S Realty”).Continue Reading VI Court Rules on Substitution of Parties to Action

There is an old saying that you can’t fight city hall, but any administrative law attorney will tell you that this is not true.  If a local government agency makes a decision that affects your personal interests, you most certainly can appeal that decision.  But in doing so, appellants must take care that they lodge their appeals with the correct adjudicative body.  Aggrieved parties cannot simply run to court to appeal an administrative decision that did not go their way.  Instead, they must take full advantage of any administrative appeals process that the local government has put into place.  This rule, known as the “administrative exhaustion” doctrine, is a bedrock principle in governing the interaction between government agencies and the court system.Continue Reading The District Court of the Virgin Islands Vindicates the Administrative Exhaustion Doctrine in Challenges to DPNR Land Use Permits