ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603150077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE LEGAL SQUABBLE has been carried on in two states and a foreign country. A ruling this week doesn't promise an end to it.
For more than 15 years, a dispute over a $5 restaurant bill has wound its way through the court systems of two states and a foreign country with no sign of ending.
Though the restaurant is long closed, legal action over the 1980 incident continued this week.
The facts are these:
On Feb. 29, 1980, Denis R. O'Brien, a University of Virginia graduate student, refused to pay the $5 charge for misplacing a red ticket the Mousetrap restaurant used to keep track of its customers' purchases.
O'Brien, who had purchased nothing, challenged restaurant manager Christopher Wren to call police, which Wren did.
Police took O'Brien to a city magistrate, who refused to file charges against O'Brien.
O'Brien sued the restaurant, alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution. He lost and believed the matter ended.
It was not.
While O'Brien moved to Massachusetts to study at Harvard, the Mousetrap responded with lawsuits of its own. O'Brien, unaware of the lawsuits for defamation, was convicted by a Charlottesville jury, which awarded the restaurant's owners $64,800. The restaurant alleged it was harmed by fliers O'Brien posted protesting its red-ticket policy.
O'Brien refused to pay, spawning suits in Massachusetts and New Zealand when O'Brien he returned there.
All the while, damages grew to $156,000 with interest. In 1991, the High Court of New Zealand refused to uphold the judgment.
Then O'Brien returned to Virginia. He said he was lured back by assurances of a settlement. Lawyers for the Mousetrap say that was not the case and filed suit to collect damages.
O'Brien was saved by a state Supreme Court ruling that the judgment was invalid because he was not given proper notice of the proceedings against him.
Last year, O'Brien filed lawsuits against Diane Brubaker, the restaurant's owner, and Wren, claiming fraud and emotional harm from the ordeal and asking $1.5 million in damages.
Brubaker and Wren refiled their defamation lawsuits against O'Brien, seeking $930,000.
Monday, Charlottesville Circuit Judge Designate Joseph F. Spinella dismissed O'Brien's suits against Brubaker, Wren and their former attorney, John Lowe. Spinella, calling the action against Lowe vindictive, ordered O'Brien to pay Lowe's legal fees. O'Brien, who is studying to be a lawyer, vowed to appeal the judge's ruling to the state high court.
``The guy's just insatiable, isn't he?'' said Edward B. Lowry, who represents the Mousetrap's parent corporation, Brubaker and Wren.
``My clients long since have said they have lives to live. Nobody has had anything but grief from this,'' Lowry said.
O'Brien said he is simply seeking justice.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB