Here is an interesting nugget that I found on Mike Meier and I am pretty certain that it is the same Mike Meier we are talking about as at the time that this case was going on, my research shows only two Mike Meiers that were lawyers in the DC area and one of them was in the Army working for the judge advocate general so I don't think this refers to him.
Mr. Meier was sued by architect Reena Racki for copyright infringement on her drawings she made for Mr. Meyer. Below is a synopsis of the case along with a link to all the documents. I find it interesting that a lawyer that deals with copyright infringement gets sued for it. Although an agreement was reached in the case was settled before it came to trial it is very interesting and I believe that Ms. Racki presented a strong case.
In July of 2003 Mr. Meier and his wife purchased a rowhouse in a historical district of Washington DC to use as an office. The building needed some work done to bring it up to code and they hired architect Reena Racki to do the design work and oversee the construction on the building. Mr. Meier contends that Ms. Racki in approximately 7 months working with him did not get a building permit or do any work on the building whatsoever at which point he released her abd hired a new architect and had a permit within five days to start work on the building.
In testimony given by Ms. Racki she states that Mr. Meier was difficult to work for and continually asked for changes. Being in the construction business myself I know that when dealing with a historical building everything done to the building down to the colors of paint that are allowed must be approved by the historical committee. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to try to bring a building up to code, meet the demands of a client and get the approval of the historical board. So anytime a change is made she has to go through the process of submission all over again with the historical society. You should have their approval first before getting any type of building permit as detailed drawings must be submitted at the time the permit is purchased so it would make no sense to get a building permit with drawings that had not been approved by the historical Society.
Mr. Meier states that his new architect was able to obtain a building permit within five business days. Ms. Racki brought in sworn testimony from a Superior Court case between her and Mr. Meier over the issue of breach of contract and payment where Mr. Meier's new architect under oath stated the reason he was able to obtain a permit and start work so quickly is that he basically used drawings provided by Mr. Meier which had already been approved by the historical society. Ms. Racki had the good sense to copyright her drawings so that when she later saw the building and noticed the work she obtained copies of the permits and plans and found that they were pretty much identical to what she had done.
There is a lot of detail and a lot of documents and if anyone is interested I have them posted here:
http://www.scribd.com/my_document_collections/3771407
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