Residence, Car & Fund Are Separate

No Causation Burden for Employer

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 1, 2012
Tags: Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Virginia Court of Appeals, Workers’ Comp

In an employer’s appeal alleging claimant unjustifiably refused selective employment, the Court of Appeals says the commission erred in finding that employer had the burden of raising causation in its hearing application, and in deciding the issue of causation was not properly before it. Claimant was injured at her job with Wal-Mart when she became [...]

PSA Support Change Not ‘Self-Executing’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 28, 2012
Tags: Domestic Relations, Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Virginia Court of Appeals

Although a father claims the parties’ PSA allowed him to reduce child support after he left his overseas assignment with a private defense contractor in Iraq, the Court of Appeals upholds a trial court judgment that PSA’s support modification provision was not self-executing and father owes $39,000 in arrearages. The Property Settlement Agreement was affirmed, [...]

Open Heart Surgery Service Unnecessary

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 1, 2012
Tags: Administrative, Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Virginia Court of Appeals

A decision by the Virginia State Health Commissioner to deny the application of a Petersburg hospital for a Certificate of Public Need to establish an open heart surgery service is upheld by the Court of Appeals; the record supports the commissioner’s determination that the proposed service is not necessary to meet a public need. In [...]

Scrapping Truck Was Embezzlement

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 1, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s jury trial conviction and 20-year sentence for grand larceny by embezzlement of a truck he scrapped for $175 after failing to pay a car dealer $1,120 as agreed; defendant waived his objections to informing the jury of his incarceration before trial and his objection to the revocation of the [...]

DCSE Gets Money from Comp Settlement

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 24, 2012
Tags: Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Virginia Court of Appeals, Workers’ Comp

The commission did not err in refusing to take action against employer after it paid a portion of claimant’s settlement of his workers’ comp claim directly to the Department of Child Support Enforcement, the Court of Appeal says. Claimant owed monthly child support under an earlier divorce decree. The support orders in the divorce case [...]

No Collateral Attack on Sentencing Order

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 24, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Virginia Court of Appeals

A defendant cannot overturn revocation of his suspended sentence on the ground that the earlier period of suspension had been improperly extended at a previous sentencing for a probation violation in 1998; the Court of Appeals rejects defendant’s collateral attack on the 1998 sentencing order. In 1998, as a condition of the newly resuspended sentence [...]

No Coverage for Cardiac Condition

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 17, 2012
Tags: Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Virginia Court of Appeals, Workers’ Comp

An employer is not liable for medical payments for a claimant’s heart bypass surgery, as his cardiac condition was coincidentally discovered as claimant was being evaluated for surgery for his work-related right-sided inguinal hernia that resulted from claimant’s attempt to lift a heavy box, and the Court of Appeals affirms the commission decision for employer. [...]

Suppression Reversed for Probable Cause

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 15, 2012
Tags: Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Search & Seizure, Virginia Court of Appeals

On the commonwealth’s appeal, the Court of Appeals reverses the trial court’s pretrial order suppressing defendant’s admission of theft after his arrest and remands for a new trial. A Dollar General Store employee called 911 after he believe he observed an individual shoplifting. He described the shoplifter as a white male, age 25 to 35, [...]

Raised Chair Injury Compensable

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 30, 2012
Tags: Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Virginia Court of Appeals, Workers’ Comp

The Court of Appeals reverses and remands a majority decision of the commission denying benefits to a correctional officer injured stepping down from a raised chair; the commission applied an inapposite analysis comparing the raised chair to stairs when another case supports that the injury arose out of employment under the unique circumstances of this [...]