Fairfax man can keep Declaration copy

Long before there were bloggers, there were preachers in pulpits charged with delivering momentous news.

Thus it was on July 17, 1776, that the Executive Council of Massachusetts took action to let colonists know that our nascent nation had severed its ties with England.

In order to broadcast the broadside, the council ordered that copies of the Declaration of Independence be printed and distributed to Massachusetts ministers to be read to their congregations, then delivered to town and district clerks to be recorded in local records “to remain as a perpetual Memorial thereof.”

Several years ago, a copy of one of those Massachusetts broadsides, rescued from an attic in 1995, came into the hands of Richard L. Adams Jr., who paid nearly a half-million dollars for the "Pownalborough Print." Documentation indicated the copy had been intended for the Town of Pownalborough, Massachusetts, which is now Wiscasset, Maine.

In 2004, the State of Maine sued for return of the document. But on Feb. 22, Fairfax Circuit Judge Terry Ney said that Maine failed to prove either that the document had been a public record or that it had been lost or stolen from town records before Adams bought it from reputable dealer.

Ney confirmed Adams’ ownership of the document in a 14-page opinion in Adams v. State of Maine (VLW 008-8-039).

Executive’s defamation claim tossed

A former executive who said she was defamed by her job performance review has come up empty-handed, after winning one of the largest verdicts in 2005.

Cynthia Hyland had been with defense contractor Raytheon Corporation for 21 years and served as a senior vice president prior to being fired in 2003 after the business unit she led lost money. In 2005, a Fairfax County jury awarded Hyland $3.5 million in a suit alleging the company president made defamatory remarks in Hyland’s performance evaluation.

Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Arthur Vieregg reduced the $2 million punitive damage award to the statutory cap of $350,000, and the case went up on appeal.

In March 2007, the Supreme Court of Virginia reversed Hyland’s $1.85 million award, saying that only two of the five allegedly defamatory statements cited by Hyland could support the jury verdict. The justices sent the case back for another look at the factual accuracy of statements relating to Hyland’s role in the bidding process for two government contacts and her team’s being “off plan” on their financial targets.

Last month, Vieregg granted summary judgment for Raytheon and its president in Hyland v. Raytheon Technical Services, saying Hyland admitted that she oversaw or was the project manager for the two government contracts at issue and was responsible for identified financial losses.

Neither statement identified by the Supreme Court was defamatory, the circuit court said.

Smith elected chief judge in Fairfax Circuit

Virginia’s largest circuit court, Fairfax County, has elected a new chief judge. On July 1, Judge Dennis J. Smith will be taking over from current Chief Judge Michael P. McWeeny, who has served as chief judge for the past six years.

An alumnus of Brooklyn College, Smith graduated from American University’s Washington College of Law. He went on the Fairfax County Circuit Court bench in June 1995. Prior to joining the circuit court, Smith served as a substitute judge in the general district and juvenile and domestic relations courts in Fairfax, according to the court’s Web site.

Under the Virginia Code, a circuit chief judge’s duties include assignment of work among the judges. And of course, in the past few years, the Fairfax chief judge likely has been involved in the major expansion and renovation of the Fairfax Judicial Center. According to the contractor, Dick Corporation, the project is scheduled for completion next spring.