Strasburg vet wins judgment
Dismissal ordered in defamation suit
By Sally Voth - svoth@nvdaily.comHARRISONBURG -- A U.S. District Court judge has awarded a Strasburg veterinarian a default judgment in his defamation suit against his ex-wife.
Judge Samuel G. Wilson issued a dismissal order in Richard Lee Hammett's lawsuit against Andrea Sieg on Sept. 7, according to online court records.
Hammett had originally filed the case against Sieg, who is also a veterinarian, in Shenandoah County Circuit Court, but it was transferred to U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg in April 2009, according to court records.
Hammett, who runs Animal Care Center of Strasburg, filed the $100,000 lawsuit after Sieg reported to the Virginia Department of Health Professions in July 2008 that he was mentally ill and abusive to animals. His motion for default judgment says she did so in "bad faith, maliciously, or with reckless disregard for the truth."
The suit says that before filing the complaint, Sieg threatened Hammett with defamation and wrote his brother. She also repeated the allegations to people within Hammett's practice area, the suit claims.
The allegations made against Hammett were investigated by the Department of Health Professions and submitted to the Virginia Board of Veterinary Medicine and dismissed, the lawsuit says.
In Hammett's motion for default judgment, he says that Sieg has withheld court-related material and evidence, and hasn't attended court-ordered meetings.
Hammett is listed as one of Sieg's creditors in her Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in South Carolina, according to online court records. Wilson's order says that they have agreed to a payment plan in that case.
Wilson also denied a motion for dismissal filed by Sieg, who lives in Jackson, S.C., last October. In it, she says that Hammett wanted her to be deposed for six to eight hours, and says she lives 500 miles from Hammett, and hasn't spoken to any of his clients or friends since about 2006.
"This whole procedure is just harassment and torture for my person and my family and I cannot accept this procedure any further!" the motion says.
Wilson's order adopted a November report by U.S. Magistrate Judge James G. Welsh.
"This case confirms once again that a decree of divorce may end the parties' matrimony, but it all too often fails to end their acrimony," Welsh's report says.
It says that Sieg was "embittered" that she didn't get a particular horse following the couple's divorce -- they separated in 2005 -- and "filed a false, malicious, defamatory and unfounded complaint with the VDHP."
Welsh's report says because Sieg didn't respond to information filed by Hammett, she couldn't later deny several facts, including that during the couple's divorce proceeding, Sieg committed perjury, was in contempt, and made up and hid evidence. In the federal civil court matter, she also hasn't cooperated with court orders, it says.
There is no evidence that Hammett's personal or professional reputation were damaged, Welsh's report concludes.
Hammett declined comment Thursday.
Tucker Griffin Barnes P.C. - Charlottesville Attorney
Charlottesville, VA
434-973-7474
www.TGBlaw.com
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