Law Commons^™

The Letter Of Credit As Security For Completion Of Streets, Sidewalks, And Other Bonded Municipal Improvements, James P. Downey

University of Richmond Law Review

When approving a land development project, municipalities require assurance that developers will construct the required public improvements, and that in the event of default, the surety will be responsive, so that the project will be completed promptly, without risk to the municipal treasury. A form of guarantee sometimes used is the letter of credit. The case law involving public improvement letters of credit is sparse, yet the contingent liability to municipalities from defaulted land developments, with illusory sureties, should not be underestimated.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Commercial Law, Michael J. Herbert

University of Richmond Law Review

This survey of commercial law reviews all Virginia Supreme Court cases interpreting the Virginia Uniform Commercial Code (the "Code") and all statutory changes made to the Code in the 1988 session of the General Assembly. It also reviews significant Code cases decided in the various federal courts located in Virginia and in the Virginia circuit courts. It is current as of approximately May 1, 1988.

The Collision Of Tort And Contract In The Construction Industry, Murray H. Wright, Edward E. Nicholas Iii

University of Richmond Law Review

Over the past two decades, several courts have allowed construction industry plaintiffs to assert tort claims to recover for purely economic losses (i.e. other than injury to person or property) from other participants in the construction process. Parties assert tort claims, instead of or in addition to contract claims, to take advantage of the more liberal tort damage rules and, probably more importantly, to escape unfavorable contract provisions. This article briefly discusses the different origins and goals of tort and contract law. It then reviews some of the decisions allowing recovery of purely economic losses in tort as well as …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Commercial Law, Michael J. Herbert

University of Richmond Law Review

It has been a fairly busy year for Commercial Law in Virginia courts, but not in the legislature. This may not last; there are already legislative efforts underway to extend the coverage of Virginia's Uniform Commercial Code (the "Code") to electronic fund transfers and personal property leasing. If those efforts are successful, the General Assembly will soon have on its hands the considerable task of evaluating the first major overhaul of the Code in a decade.

The Purchase Money Security Interest In Inventory Versus The After-Acquired Property Interest-A "No Win" Situation, Nathaniel Hansford

University of Richmond Law Review

Extending credit entails risk. Seldom is a creditor absolutely assured of complete payment of his debt. Not only is there a risk in almost every loan, but the types of risks that must be weighed are manifold. The debtor may be a poor business person and never make a profit sufficient to repay the debt. The debtor class is replete with scoundrels and outright crooks who borrow money without any intention to service the debt. The economy may slump to such a degree that even astute business persons are pressed to pay their outstanding obligations. The creditor's collateral may deteriorate …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Commercial Law, Michael J. Herbert

University of Richmond Law Review

It has been a quiet year in the Commonwealth of Virginia, at least in the area of commercial law. There have been only a smattering of cases, for the most part routine, and slight amendments to Virginia's Uniform Commercial Code (the "Code"). The most significant commercial law development occurred neither in the General Assembly nor the courts, but at the Federal Trade Commission, which is again busying itself with the regulation of consumer credit.

Virginia's Lemon Law: The Best Treatment For Car Owner's Canker?, Carol S. Nance

University of Richmond Law Review

The consumer advocacy movement of the late 1970's induced the Congress and the state legislatures to enact numerous consumer protection statutes. Unfortunately, several years elapsed before the public and the legislatures realized that those statutes did not protect the consumer in what is frequently the consumer's most significant personal purchase-the automobile.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Commercial Law, Michael J. Herbert

University of Richmond Law Review

During its 1984 and 1985 sessions, the General Assembly enacted a number of minor technical amendments to Virginia's Uniform Commercial Code. These included both the much-needed and long-awaited change of the word "state" to "Commonwealth" throughout the Code and a series of inexplicable revisions in the Code's punctuation. The most significant of these technical changes was undoubtedly the increase in the filing fees for Article 9 financing statements filed with the State Corporation Commission. (One substantial legislative change which indirectly affects the Code was the enactment of Virginia's new "Lemon Law." Some aspects of that statute are discussed below in …

Twisting Slowly, Slowly In The Wind: The Effect Of Delay On A Surety's Obligations In Virginia, Michael J. Herbert

University of Richmond Law Review

It is a commonplace among lawyers that the surety, especially the uncompensated surety, is a favorite of the law whose obligations are strictly construed, and with whose sacred rights no designing creditor dare tamper with impunity. In fact, a more reliable maxim might be that "the [surety's] lot is not a happy one." While at common law any change in the obligation of the principal to the creditor discharges the surety, this rule, in many respects, is quite meaningless; and, even where meaningful, easily circumvented. The consent of the surety to a change in the obligation generally precludes discharge, even …

The Trustee Versus The Trade Creditor: A Critique Of Section 547(C)(1), (2) & (4) Of The Bankruptcy Code, Michael J. Herbert

University of Richmond Law Review

The Bankruptcy Code, like its predecessor the Bankruptcy Act, permits the trustee to avoid certain preferential transfers made or suffered by the bankrupt just prior to bankruptcy. Generally, any transfer relating to an antecedent debt made to or for a creditor by an insolvent within ninety days before the filing of the bankruptcy petition is avoidable by the trustee. The trustee may sue the creditor to recover the preference. In addition, the preferred creditor will not be entitled to any dividend from the estate until the preference is repaid.

The Perfect Tender Rule - An "Acceptable" Interpretation, David Frisch

Law Faculty Publications

The focus of this article will be on the inherent conflict between the buyer's right to reject and the seller's right to cure. We will first review both the scholarly commentary addressing the issue and the judicial interpretations of the rejection-cure conflict. We will then propose a resolution to the conflict, or an acceptable interpretation, which serves to promote the expressed purposes and policies of the Uniform Commercial Code.

Toxic Substances Litigation In The Fourth Circuit, Francis E. Mcgovern

University of Richmond Law Review

Personal injuries caused by toxic substances have generated problems of major concern to our social, political and legal systems. Reports in the news media concerning harm caused by toxic substances and expressions of public awareness of potential dangers associated with exposure to toxic substances are commonplace. Legislatures, administrative agencies and courts at both federal and state levels have begun to devote substantial energy to addressing issues raised by exposure to toxic Substances. Scientific, industrial, financial, and legal communities are seeking to deal with these problems from a number of different perspectives. Just as terms such as "Love Canal" and "asbestosis" …

Products Liability And The Virginia Statute Of Limitations - A Call For The Legislative Rescue Squad, Robert I. Stevenson

University of Richmond Law Review

In recent years a flood of federally-funded scientific break-throughs have on almost a weekly basis established that some form of cancer or other dreaded disease is "caused" by exposure to a man-made product often not previously suspected of having a toxic tendency. Persons so afflicted then seek recovery from the product manufacturer. Their basis in tort is either for negligence in producing so harmful (and thus defective) a product, or for having failed to warn of the danger, or for "strict liability" within Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Where, as in Virginia, there is uncertainty as to …

The Due-On-Sale Clause: A Marriage Gone Sour- A Checklist For The Practitioner, W. Wade Berryhill

University of Richmond Law Review

The problem begins simply enough. Soon moving to another city a homeowner negotiates and signs a contract for the sale of his present home. The contract provides that the purchasers are to assume the current mortgage with an interest rate of 91 %. The vendor and the purchasers notify the lender of the intended sale. Despite the fact that the proposed purchasers qualify as acceptable credit-risks, the lender informs the parties that the current mort- gage contains a "due-on-sale" clause and that he intends to accelerate the due date of the mortgage unless the purchasers agree to accept an increase …

Virginia Should Adopt Strict Tort Recovery In Products Liability, John P. Rowley Iii, Sally Y. Wood

University of Richmond Law Review

Since World War H, revolutionary changes have overtaken the American law of products liability. Such changes have been in response to the increase in consumer injuries resulting from defects in sophisticated products mass-produced by sophisticated manufacturing processes. This has occurred during a time of increased litigiousness and general awareness of the need for consumer protection. Accordingly, products liability suits have multiplied, and the legal theories used to determine the outcome of such suits have similarly been in an era of dramatic transition. Such legal changes have significantly affected both tort and warranty law across the country. Until 1960 products liability …

Purchase Of Consumer Paper And Subjection To Collateral Forces, Benjamin Geva

University of Richmond Law Review

The purchase of commercial paper issued in return for consumer goods [hereinafter referred to as consumer paper] is a common and wide-spread sales financing practice. Various judicial techniques and legislative schemes have been employed to disqualify purchasers of consumer paper from becoming holders in due course [hereinafter referred to as HDC], thus rendering these purchasers subject to defenses to the instrument based upon consumer dissatisfaction with the goods. Underlying the denial of HDC sttus to purchasers of consumer paper are the following premises: (1) the sale of consumer goods is not a commercial transaction and should not be governed by …

Civil Procedure-Title 8.01: Virginia's New Civil Procedure Act, Scott D. Anderson, Theodore I. Brenner

University of Richmond Law Review

On October 1, 1977, Title 8 of the Code of Virginia was repealed and Title 8.01 became effective. The revisers of Title 8 have produced an extensive, as well as comprehensive, change in the statutes which govern civil procedure in Virginia. Most of the provisions have been rewritten, deleted or moved to other titles. With several notable exceptions, civil procedure in Virginia will remain basically unchanged. Much of the revisers work leaves Title 8 substantively intact. The major changes will be discussed in a chapter by chapter analysis of Title 8.01 in Section II of this article.

A Guide To Federal Warranty Legislation-The Magnuson-Moss Act, Richard H. Matthews

University of Richmond Law Review

One of the primary causes of concern in the recent movement toward greater consumer protection has been in the area of product warranties. Limited express warranties, liability disclaimers and ambiguous remedy

procedures often have been used by manufacturers and merchants to strip the consumer of all but a bare minimum of protection against defective products. Finding state laws incapable of adequately solving this problem, Congress preempted the field by enacting the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.' This Act makes major changes in the law of warranties and places much heavier legal burdens upon manufacturers and other warrantors. This comment will attempt to …

Virginia Law Of Interest And Usury, John W. Edmonds Iii

University of Richmond Law Review

The concept of a limitation upon the charges that may be imposed for the hire of money is hardly modem. Although it may not be the oldest usury law, a reference to Deuteronomy should suffice: "Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shall not lend upon usury."

A Synopsis Of The Major Revisions To Article 9 Of The Uniform Commercial Code Adopted By Virginia, John W. Edmonds Iii

University of Richmond Law Review

When the Uniform Commercial Code became effective in Mississippi and South Carolina on January 1, 1968, it reached its goal of near uniform enactment. Maintaining this achievement of uniform adoption, however, has proven to be most difficult with regard to the Code's treatment of "secured transactions" in Article 9. In 1966, the Permanent Editorial Board 2 noted that there had been 337 non-uniform, non-official amendments to Article 9 of the Code. Accordingly, the Board established a Review Committee to restudy Article 9 in depth and report its findings. The study culminated in the Final Report of the Permanent Editorial Board …

Sales-Breach Of Warranty And The Wrongful Death Statutes- Tort Concept Of Warranty Is Extende

University of Richmond Law Review

The past few decades have seen the development of a trend in the field of products liability that has increased the protection of the ultimate consumer by expanding the duties and liabilities of the manufacturer and seller. This inclination has recently been extended by requiring manufacturers and sellers to warrant the safety of their products, and by abrogating the necessity of privity in most warranty actions. The result has increased the consumer's chance of recovery for personal injury caused by a defective product on the basis of negligence or breach of warranty. However, should the consumer die from the injury, …

Enforcing Security Interests In Consumer Goods: Some Notes On The Vicious Cycle, Richard E. Speidel

University of Richmond Law Review

The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), now effective everywhere except Louisiana, is conspicuously neutral on consumer protection issues, leaving these matters to other laws, if any, in the adopting state. In the past few years, considerable pressure for reform of the consumer credit transaction has been manifested. One example of proposed re- form is the Uniform Consumer Credit Code (UCCC), approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and the American Bar Association, and recommended for adoption by the several states.

Uniform Commercial Code- Breach Of Warranty- Applicable Statute Of Limitations For Personal Injury

University of Richmond Law Review

Statutes of limitation are statutes of repose, the object of which is to compel the exercise of a right of action within a reasonable time. They are designed to suppress fraudulent and stale claims from being asserted after a great lapse of time, to the surprise of the parties, when the evidence may have been lost, the facts may have become obscure because of defective memory, or the witnesses have died or dis- appeared.

Security Transfers By Secured Parties, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

While no Uniform Commercial Code section specifically so provides, the Code clearly contemplates transfer by secured parties of their interest arising under security agreements, and these transfers commonly occur. Yet the legal ramifications of such transfers are to a large extent unknown because of the silence of the Code and the absence of both reported decisions and secondary authorities. This article will examine one type of transfer by secured parties-transfers by secured parties to secure payment of an indebtedness.

A Child's First Book Of Sellers' And Buyers' Remedies- Then And Now, Harry L. Snead Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

If you are one of those uncomfortable lawyers who as yet has not made his first penetration into Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code perhaps this brief comparative note can start you on the road to learning the sellers' and buyers' remedies under the Code. The emphasis will be on fundamental differences in approach between the Code and prior law; detailed treatment may be found in texts, treatises, and numerous law review articles.

New Tricks For Old Dogs, Harry L. Snead Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

On the first day of January, 1966, Virginia practitioners will receive a bagful of .new tricks. The UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE becomes effective in Virginia on that day. In adopting the Code during its 1964 legislative session Virginia became the twenty-ninth state to adopt the Code; the Virginia version of the Code follows, with but few exceptions, the official version sponsored by the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.