Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992 TAG: 9202050214
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
THICKET OF SUITS CREATES CONFUSION
Through a series of legal maneuverings that would boggle Perry Mason, the feud between developer Georgia Anne Snyder-Falkinham and engineer John Olver has grown thick and confusing.Olver, embroiled in two lawsuits she filed last year, has struck back with a $342,730 countersuit against his former partner.
In papers filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Olver claims that Snyder-Falkinham's lawsuits are unfounded and improperly filed. Besides, he claims, the statute of limitations has run out on her allegations.
Another target of a Snyder-Falkinham lawsuit - the Roanoke law firm of Gentry, Locke, Rakes and Moore, one of whose partners is her former attorney - made similar claims in a motion for dismissal filed in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Attorneys on all sides of the three suits have filled the case files with motions and amendments. No court date has been set.
Last year, Snyder-Falkinham sued Olver for $14 million, claiming he misled her and performed shoddy work on two New River Valley housing projects - The Vistas in Blacksburg and High Meadows in Radford.
One suit claimed that Olver broke his contract by failing to do site planning, utility layout, cost estimates and other work in 1985. His attorneys, in seeking a dismissal, demanded she submit the contract for evidence.
Her attorneys rewrote the original complaint, inserting the word "oral" in referring to the contractual agreement.
Snyder-Falkinham, in her other suit against Olver, makes similar allegations about his work on High Meadows, which was being developed by Rich Hill Development Corp.
Olver, Snyder-Falkinham and her former attorney, Bruce C. Stockburger, were partners in that corporation.
She also claims that Olver dropped out when he realized the project was in financial trouble, "leaving this plaintiff holding the bag."
Snyder-Falkinham claims she was at least partly responsible for Rich Hill's finances and she's trying to recover money she claims she had to pay as a result of Olver's negligence.
In response, Olver's attorneys at the Roanoke law firm of Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove say he never agreed to provide the extent of engineering services she claims.
Also, he claims that Rich Hill owes him $97,730 for work he agreed to performed, and another $245,000 for his share of stock when the corporation bought him out in 1988.
In the third lawsuit, Snyder-Falkinham claims Stockburger failed to reveal his potential conflict of interest in his representation of another businessman, Ralph Sampson, with whom she had formed a partnership to build The Vistas.
She also claims that Stockburger, because he also was representing Rich Hill, failed to represent her interests properly.
She holds the law firm responsible for the law partner's actions.
The firm says she insisted that Stockburger represent Sampson, and that on Stockburger's advice she got another attorney for matters in which he might have a conflict of interest.
The firm says that "any damager suffered by plaintiff resulted from her own negligence."