Natalie Jacobs (Associate-McLean) prevailed on behalf of her client, a national chain restaurant, in an unusually “messy” matter in which local homeowners sued our client, another restaurant and Fairfax County alleging grease from the restaurants caused sewer lines to become congested to such an extent that their basement flooded with sewage. Natalie demurred on behalf of our client arguing that the company did not owe a legal duty to downstream property owners. The court sustained our demurrer, but granted plaintiff leave to amend. Plaintiff filed an amended complaint, naming additional restaurants as defendants. Again, we demurred, and again, the court sustained with leave to amend.

Plaintiff filed a second amended complaint before eventually nonsuiting the restaurant defendants, including our client. The court later sustained the Fairfax County demurrer, which dismissed the case with prejudice. Following the nonsuit, plaintiff refiled the claims in a second suit against some of the previously nonsuited restaurants. Notably, plaintiff failed to include our client in the new suit, and plaintiff’s time to proceed against them had expired.  A hard-fought win for Natalie anything but sub-par.