Week in Review - Legal Edition

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Feb 4, 2008

Wright, Zarnoch appointed to CSA

The governor has appointed former Judge Alexander Wright Jr. and Robert A. Zarnoch to the Court of Special Appeals. Wright, 58, who will replace now-Court of Appeals Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr., is a former district court judge in Baltimore County who was twice appointed to the circuit court bench and twice voted off. Zarnoch, 62, who replaces retired Judge James A. Kenney III, is the attorney general's chief counsel to the General Assembly. He has been in that position since 1979 and has weighed in on the state's behalf on most major legal issues of the day, from redistricting to eminent domain to gay marriage.

City's MBE program challenged

Baltimore's plans for a sewage system along the Lower Stony Run have drawn another court challenge, City Solicitor George A. Nilson told the city's Board of Estimates on Wednesday. Bradshaw Construction Corp. is challenging not only the award of the $40 million project, but the city's right to require set-asides for minority- and women-owned businesses. A city judge declined to put the contract on hold while the litigation proceeds, Nilson said. Bradshaw claims the set-asides violate the City Charter, which requires the Board of Estimates to "award the contract as an entirety to the lowest responsible bidder" or to reject all bids.

Architecture firm gets $150K verdict

Even though Baltimore architecture firm Design Collective Inc. changed its mind about moving to a building it was hired to design, the owner of the Fells Point lot must pay its $150,000 bill, a judge has ordered. After a weeklong trial in Baltimore City Circuit Court, Judge Stuart R. Berger rejected defendant Union Wharf LLC's counterclaims that Design Collective breached its promise to be the anchor tenant of the planned building. Berger said that Union Wharf's principals -- James P. O'Hare, a partner at the Baltimore office of McGuireWoods LLP and developer Larry Silverstein, who has degrees from the London School of Economics and the Johns Hopkins University -- should have known that a Letter of Intent is not binding.

NewsOne sues over Post/Gannett pact

USA Today may have a new regional wholesale distributor -- The Washington Post -- but not without a fight by longtime distributor NewsOne Newspaper Distribution Services LLC of Prince George's County. On Friday, NewsOne sued Gannett Co. Inc. and a Gannett subsidiary, seeking to block the USA Today publisher from switching to The Washington Post Co.'s new wholesale distribution service. NewsOne also sought a temporary restraining order "to stop the Gannett changeover to The Washington Post for this morning's delivery," Stuart A. Schwager, NewsOne's attorney, said Monday. U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. denied that request Friday afternoon. Schwager said the next step, a preliminary injunction hearing, has not yet been scheduled.