Blog: Opinions & Observations

Unmarked Cemeteries and Gravesites in ROW Projects

October 19, 2016

Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said?All’s Well That Ends Well (2.3.1042).Valar morghulis. Valar dohaeris.A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3, Chapter 74, Arya XIII.Despite the best-laid plans of right-of-way professionals, previously forgotten cemeteries or graveyards are sometimes discovered during the course of right-of-way projects. The words “cemetery” and “graveyard” bring with them images of ordered rows of graves with headstones or markers....

Virginia Supreme Court Holds Teaming Agreement Unenforceable

September 28, 2016

In January 2016, I posted an Opinions & Observations column, Teaming Agreements in Virginia: Are They Enforceable?, dealing with the subject matter of whether teaming agreements are enforceable in Virginia. In that  column I mentioned that there was only one Virginia Supreme Court case dealing with this issue, W. J. Shafer Assocs. v. Cordant, Inc., 254 Va. 514, 493 S.E. 2d 512 (1997). Nevertheless, the reasoning of the Supreme Court in Shafer was followed...