The Library

Gentry Locke’s rail team successfully challenged in Louisiana state court the authority of the Lake Providence Port Commission to pursue a feeder line case at the STB for property outside East Carroll Parish because the commission’s authority was limited by statute to a specific geography. The court’s decision was affirmed by the Louisiana Court of Appeals. The case is Delta Southern Railroad, Inc. v. Lake Providence Port Comm’n, 2025 La. App. LEXIS 308 (La. App. 2nd Cir. 2025). Gentry Locke’s team was led by John Scheib and Noah Sullivan.

Gentry Locke’s Real Estate Litigation attorneys Kevin W. Holt and Aidan C. Williams represented the defendants in this case. The plaintiff asserted a prescriptive easement over our clients’ undeveloped property in the Endicott community of Franklin County. Plaintiff alleged that he and his ancestors had used a “soil road” on our clients’ property to access his parcel from State Route 40 for more than 20 years prior to filing suit. The judge found the evidence of plaintiff’s use of the road was too infrequent and inconsistent to meet the burden of proof to establish a prescriptive easement. Neither our clients, […]

Gentry Locke’s rail group led a team that successfully defended a railroad from an expropriation action brought by a railroad development district in Louisiana state court seeking to acquire 2.7 miles of the railroad’s track that had been the subject of a federal abandonment proceeding. Gentry Locke removed the case to federal court where the development district argued that the track segment had been abandoned and thus fell outside federal jurisdiction. Gentry Locke successfully argued that the track, although previously abandoned, has been and is used as “excepted track” (spur, industrial, or side track), bringing it under the STB’s exclusive […]

A Gentry Locke trial team earned a defense verdict for United Parks & Resorts after nearly seven years of litigation in both state and federal court. The Plaintiff was injured on the Aquazoid waterslide while boarding a family-style raft. Her medical damages of over $260,000 were not contested. She had two surgeries on her left knee. Plaintiff sued for $1.5 million and asked the jury to award $868,000 in closing argument. After three days of evidence, the jury found that our client’s lifeguards were not negligent, vindicating our multi-year effort to defend the Plaintiff’s claims.

Gentry Locke’s Civil Defense Litigation team defended Western Express in a multi-car accident on I-81 in Southwest Virginia. A Western Express tractor-trailer was the last vehicle in the collision series to rear-end Plaintiff’s work van. Plaintiff suffered serious injuries, including a spinal fracture and an uncontested moderate traumatic brain injury (“TBI”) with subdural bleeding. His uncontested medical damages totaled $337,000. Plaintiff alleged a variety of permanent ailments arising from his TBI. He sued for over 10 million dollars and refused to negotiate a settlement for a reasonable amount of damages. Liability was contested, as was the permanence of Plaintiff’s injuries. […]

Gentry Locke is pleased to have represented Grafton & Upton Railroad and obtained a favorable decision from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to permit construction of GURR’s rail transloading facility to move forward to support rail customer needs in New England. Our team included John Scheib and Emily Mordecai. The case is Grafton & Upton Railroad Company – Petition for Declaratory Order, Finance Docket 36696 (STB served Nov. 15, 2023).

Gentry Locke for the Defendant Defended the Port of Virginia in a wrongful death lawsuit arising out of a multi-vehicle accident in West Virginia. During the transport of cargo that passed through the Port, a trailer detached from a truck, causing a multi-vehicle accident that resulted in a death of another driver. Plaintiff, the decedent’s estate – sued the truck driver and transportation company who retrieved the cargo from the Port. The estate also sued another tractor-trailer driver and company involved in the accident, each broker and freight forwarder, the shipping company, and the Port’s operating subsidiary. The Port filed […]

A favorable and unanimous opinion released on October 19, 2023 in the case of Ashley Nicole Noonan v. Consolidated Shoe Company, Inc. by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, upheld a win for Gentry Locke’s client, Consolidated Shoe Company, Inc. The Plaintiff brought gender discrimination, Equal Pay Act, and retaliation claims against our client. Cate Jackson argued the case in the Western District of Virginia Court with assistance from Paul Klockenbrink and Amanda Morgan. Judge Moon granted summary judgment in Consolidated Shoe’s favor in November 2021. The Plaintiff appealed and the appeal was argued in January 2023 and […]

Gentry Locke for the Plaintiff This was a suit to enforce the terms of a post nuptial agreement and a QTIP trust created pursuant to the PNA. After a bench trial, the Court awarded money damages, attorneys fees, and specific performance requiring the defendant to convey assets to the trust that generated at least $10,000 in revenue per month. The judgment held up on appeal and we are in the process of collection.