Credit: Andrey Popov/Adobe Stock Appeals Court: Attorney Fee Award Should Have Delineated Between Sanctionable and Non-Sanctionable Conduct
"Here, the circuit court failed to make any attempt to segregate the amounts incurred because of the appellants' sanctionable conduct, namely, the costs incurred defending the Audi penalty claim. ... Therefore, the award of sanctions in the full amount of Gebreyessus' requested attorney's fees was improper and an abuse of discretion," Justice Stephen R. McCullough wrote on behalf of the 5-2 majority.
September 22, 2022 at 09:33 PM
5 minute read
The Virginia Supreme Court majority recently reversed and remanded a portion of the circuit court's order awarding all sanctions against an Audi dealership, finding the lower court failed to segregate requested attorney fees related to a sanctionable claim from those related to non-sanctionable conduct.
AV Automotive, an Audi dealership in Arlington, Virginia, filed suit against a former employee, Betelehem Gebreyessus, and others for allegedly fabricating customer surveys from April 2016 through September 2017 in an overarching scheme to get its general sales manager fired and for Gebreyessus to take over, according to the court's majority opinion filed Thursday.
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