Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010062
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
At the same time, Michael Horwatt, Snyder-Falkinham's attorney, said it could have national implications on the use of court-ordered mediation instead of litigation to resolve disputes.
The underlying crux of the case to be heard today in Richmond, Horwatt said, is whether a Roanoke circuit court wrongly admitted supposedly confidential information from a mediation proceeding into an appeal Snyder-Falkinham filed in February 1994.
She was appealing that court's decision to dismiss her $10.5 million suit against Bruce Stockburger, one of her former attorneys. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Snyder-Falkinham, the decision could in turn reopen the original case that Stockburger and his attorneys believed they had dispensed with long ago, Horwatt said.
Stockburger's attorney said Tuesday that his client's case already has been settled, and fairly so.
"We think it is a simple appeal," said Frank Miller, Stockburger's Richmond-based attorney. "[Today] the issue is whether the case is settled."
Last summer, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on whether the circuit court made the proper decision that February not to reinstate Snyder-Falkinham's case. But three months ago, the state's high court granted the appeal.
The background for the case is best described as convoluted.
In 1991, Snyder-Falkinham sued Stockburger, a general partner in the Roanoke law firm of Gentry, Locke, Rakes and Moore, claiming he didn't inform her of a conflict of interest when she hired him in 1979 to represent her interests in two trust funds established through Crestar Bank by her late husband, Peter Snyder. The law firm also represented the bank.
Snyder-Falkinham, now a Blacksburg Planning Commission member, also claimed Stockburger failed to note another potential conflict of interest when she was persuaded to become a partner with Sampson Development Corp. in building the Vistas, a Blacksburg luxury town house project. Stockburger also represented Ralph Sampson, who owned the corporation. Snyder-Falkinham lost millions in building the Vistas and another development, Radford's High Meadows, she said.
After more lawsuits, and finally a court appearance early last year, the Snyder-Falkinham vs. Stockburger case was referred to mediation, a process used to resolve disputes without going through the long, costly process of actual litigation.
Snyder-Falkinham's and Stockburger's attorneys eventually reached a settlement, and the next day, Thomas Rasnic, one of her attorneys, had her case dismissed. Horwatt would not release specifics of the settlement, but said Snyder-Falkinham had previously said she would not agree to at least one part of it.
Although Horwatt admits that Snyder-Falkinham gave permission to her attorneys to speak on her behalf in the settlement proceedings, he said that authority didn't extend to allowing them to dismiss the case without first informing her of the final agreements.
"What we are saying is that there was no settlement," Horwatt said Tuesday. "She's fighting to keep from being buffaloed into a settlement she never wanted. She never saw anything in writing until after the dismissal of her case."
Snyder-Falkinham hired Horwatt to try to get her case reinstated and have the settlement declared invalid. In February, when the circuit court held a hearing on the matter, Horwatt said, it admitted information that had been obtained in the mediation session.
Snyder-Falkinham and Horwatt now want the Supreme Court to decide whether the circuit court erred. And, if the court rules in their favor, it "would put her back in the running" in terms of her original case.
Horwatt maintains that, if the court rules against Snyder-Falkinham, "we can kiss mediation good-bye. No lawyer will allow a client to go into mediation without a guarantee of confidentiality."
If it rules for Snyder-Falkinham, he said, mediation will continue, saving states time and money by allowing disputes to be worked out in a forum outside an overburdened court room system.
by CNB