Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

I am a freelance artist that had a co-op agreement: Local cavern owners agreed to split profits with me if I would supply all props and design a haunted cave for them. A churchlady who worked for the cavern was verbal that she would stop this "evil" so she did a background check and found a non-violent 3rd degree (most minor) sexual abuse misdemeanor from 4 years ago. She then rallied the other cavern members to her cause by imbellishing the charge to "statutory rape" and the cavern was subsequently canceled. I have emails and minutes of meetings that confirm the cavern management had been in full agreement. They never asked me about any crimes before agreeing. Violent offenders are enforced to volunteer their crime to neighbors, businesses, and employers, but I am not enforced to do so as I am a non-violent offender. I am not restricted from being anywhere that minors might be, so I saw no liability. I have been designing haunts for 17 years and my crime was in no way connected to any of those events. I also have several friends and family that are well known to the cavern owners, so my character was never brought into question beforehand. The cavern was canceled just 3 weeks before opening day. I have now lost an investment, not to mention 4 solid months of work to build cutomized props from scratch. Is there some precident for a breech of contract against the cavern owners?


Asked on 10/27/12, 4:34 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Likely depends upon the terms of the contract, and, particularly, those

governing the right of either party to cancel the agreement.

Aside from that though, you may have an action in tort against this "churchlady" for tortious interference in your business relations and/or related claims that could possibly give rise to liablilty on her part for her concerted efforts to get your deal cancelled.

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Answered on 10/27/12, 8:53 am


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